through the flames
by anameii
Summary: Isabella Swan was born with the ability to create and control fire, a power too strong to be constrained to a human body.
1. encounters

**Disclaimer** : I do not claim any ownership over the ideas of others incorporated into this fic. It all belongs to it's rightful owners.

* * *

 **encounters**

* * *

Bella's heart is thumping in her chest from the force she's exerting, feet pounding on the sidewalk as she gives it her all.

He's the first to chase her from a shop, and she's sure it's only her youth that is giving her the slight advantage in distance. But though maneuvering around the occasional passerby is not a problem in such a small town, it seems that a downfall to the size is a shop owner's ability and desire to catch her.

That can't happen.

She turns sharply at the next corner, shoes skidding on the sidewalk, only to run into an immovable object. And as the very much stoppable force, she's sent down onto the ground.

Looking up at what caused her fall, Bella's breath catches in her lungs. However, her sudden lack of proper oxygen intake is not from the run she's just been abruptly pulled out of, but from the piercing, golden stare she becomes locked onto.

She doesn't move.

That is until a shout breaks through, and then she's up on her feet running again, grabbing her dropped bag containing stolen goods and murmuring a rushed sorry to the woman she ran into as she zooms off once more.

 **.:.**

Irina watches with narrowed, curious eyes as the girl runs off, before turning to the man that had shouted after her.

She looks him up and down, discerning he runs some sort of grocery shop both from his look and the smell wafting off him. There's something about this situation that reminds her of her younger self. So unsure of the reason for his anger towards the girl but wanting to lend her a hand, Irina 'accidentally' knocks into the man, sending him sprawling in an almost mirror image of the young girl he was after.

It's a hard fall, and even she winces at it.

Looking back towards the direction the girl took off in, she makes sure she can no longer see her and then turns back to assist the man in getting up. Her apology goes unheard as the man, now standing once again, dusts off his apron and turns to head back the way he came, mumbling about little thieves with not one glance in her direction.

 _Ah, that explains it_ , she thinks to herself, quickly putting together what must have happened, before shrugging it off and continuing on with her walk.

Somehow, she's sure the girl had a reason for it.

 **.:.**

Catching her breath as she finally realizes the shop owner is no longer after her, Bella takes a moment to sort through her newly acquired items to check they're fine before making her way to the alley she'd spotted earlier on the other side of town.

She figures she can stay for another few days without risk since the man never caught sight of her face in the dark of early evening, something she's thankful for because the furthest her plan had gotten was to get to Alaska.

Now that she has, she's uncertain of what to do next.

Settling down her bag against the wall, she goes over to the large garbage container that will hopefully hide her presence in the alley and removes the duffel she stored there earlier for safety. Unzipping it, she pulls out a tattered sleeping bag and lays it out on the floor perpendicular to the trash and then closes it back up to use as a pillow.

This makeshift setup has been her bed for roughly two months now, and she's grown used to it. She sleeps at early nightfall to make sure she's not still there in the early hours when she'll be more easily spotted.

As soon as she settles and places her head on the duffel bag turned pillow, she's out for the night.

 **.:.**

Irina walks at a steady pace along the sidewalk, her made up errands for the night done.

Her life can be a bit boring at times like this, with nothing else to do and no need for sleep; but exploring cities she hasn't been to in decades and seeing what has changed with the times is a bright light in a mostly dark existence.

It's as she's passing what used to be an old, dingy bar that she picks up the sound of heavy breathing. Curious, as always, she follows the sound to a narrow alley. At first glance, she sees no one. Walking further in, she finally spots the figure whose breathing she picked up asleep on the ground behind the only garbage container there.

Something about them seems familiar to her, so she approaches the figure, light on her feet as to not alert them.

Crouching besides them once she's within reach, she catches a clearer scent, but it's only when she spots the long, mahogany hair poking out of the sleeping bag's cover that she makes the connection. A slight frown becomes visible on her face as she realizes that the girl from earlier indeed had a big reason to steal from that shop.

Saddened that she's not really able to do much for the girl, she goes to smooth down the stray hairs sticking out but is startled at the high temperature that meets her cold fingers.

It's then that she notices the heat emanating from the girl, as though she was a heater of her own, but she doesn't have time to contemplate much about that oddity as her cell rings and she has to jump up onto the roof to avoid the now very much awake girl from spotting her.

It turns out she's needed back at the house, so she goes, leaving behind a confused and tired girl trying to fall back into a restful sleep.

 **.:.**

The night before was one of the best sleeps she's had in awhile, despite the odd awakening she had at one point, and Bella hopes tonight will be the same.

She's eating one of the cans of cold spaghetti she'd taken from the shop yesterday, and she has a bottle full of water at her side to wash it down.

Also the best meal she's had in some time.

It's been dark for a while now, and she'll be turning in for the night once she's done. She'd spent the better part of the day trying to work out what to do now, but there's not really much to do in a small town like this one, so she has to move on to the next and try to find some sort of arrangement there.

She throws away the now empty can into the conveniently placed trash beside her, swigs down a few gulps of water and then settles into her sleeping bag for her second and last night in the alley.

 **.**

Her eyes are closed but fluttering, and she's in that stage where deep sleep is just out of reach when a loud bang startles her awake.

She looks up to see a man rooting through the trash and quickly moves up into a sitting position. Huddling close to the garbage container and drawing her things to herself, she hopes against hope that he doesn't spot her.

It wouldn't be her first encounter with another homeless person, but she doesn't want to risk any sort of conflict. She's already had to deal with a few aggressive ones along her way.

The man lets out a sharp curse, and she guesses he failed to find anything. She hears him leap off the trash, pick something up off the floor and then nothing, and assumes he's gone.

She lets out a breath of relief and moves to get up, but a second later it hitches in her throat as she comes face to face with the man.

"Well well, what we got here?" He mocks, unbrushed teeth displayed in a crooked mouth as his eyes roam her figure before he asks, "Runaway?"

She doesn't answer him, focusing instead on packing up all her belongings for a quick getaway, not wanting things to get out of hand, but he takes her silence as a rebuff.

"Hey!" he shouts, "I asked if you a runaway, girl."

"I heard you, sir, but I have to go," she replies in a much quieter voice and makes to go around him but a rough hand landing sharply on her arm stops her.

"Oh hey, you got something to share in that bag?" He asks and goes to grab it before even finishing the question, but she moves to block him.

"Just let me go, I don't want anything to happen." She tells him. "Please."

"You don't tell me what to do, girl. I do the telling here, so you better give me that bag, and I'll think of letting you go, 'kay," He says, pulling out a knife from a coat pocket and motioning it at her threateningly.

"Please, just let me go. I don't have anything of use to you, sir," She tries to plead again, eyes following the weapon warily, knowing what will happen if she's attacked, what's happened every time she's been attacked since the day she left her hometown, and not wanting it to.

He doesn't reply, just encloses on her rapidly, grabbing hold of the bag and trying to rip it from her hands. Her tight grip on it prevents him from taking it outright.

She feels the tell-tale sparks along her fingers, and starts whispering hurriedly at him, "You need to let go and leave. Now please, just leave. I can't control it!"

He only scoffs at her words, taking no heed of her warning, and raises the hand holding the knife at her, swinging down.

She flinches and closes her eyes, hands bracing in front of her.

He lets out a piercing cry, knife clattering onto the ground.

The heat of fire touches her before she even opens her eyes, and she knows it's happened again.

Grabbing hold of her bag, avoiding looking at the man rolling around on the ground as he screams for help, she runs out and down the street with one single word echoing in her thoughts; no, no, no, no.

 **.:.**

There wasn't much of importance going on when she arrived back at the house, so as soon as the meeting her sister and leader had called came to an end, she was gone again.

The past few hours were spent hunting, catching a deer south of their house, and then making her way into the town nearest where she ended up, the one she was in just yesterday.

She knows it might not have been such a coincidence that she ended up there again.

Walking around a bit doesn't lessen her urge to check up on that girl she'd run into twice - both literally and figuratively - and so she gives into it and makes her way towards the alley she'd last seen her in, hopping up onto the roof she'd been up on before.

The scene she comes upon sparks a great deal of concern in her, but she manages to stop herself from reacting too quickly and risking exposure.

She watches the interaction between the girl and the obviously homeless man with sharp eyes, wanting to make sure it doesn't get out of hand, but fails to react fast enough when he launches at her with a knife that had been blocked from her view.

She jumps down onto the ground of the alley but backs up quickly when she realizes that the man is on fire.

Burning hot, bluish-orange fire that could in no way be natural.

The girl runs out of the alley then, and she only pauses for a second to look at the man who is quickly burning up before going after her. The flammability of her venom is not something she wants to risk having near those flames - even with her ability.

She finds the girl huddled against a building two streets down, body racking from silent sobs and head tucked into arms resting on knees.

Slowly, cautiously, she approaches her.

"Hello, little one," Irina says softly, placating hands going up as the girl's head whips up towards her, "Hey there, calm down. I'm not here to hurt you, but you really shouldn't be out here any longer."

The girl's eyebrows furrow, as if she's wondering what she means, before her eyes widen in recognition, fear quickly clouding the previous confusion.

"I di-didn't do it, i-it wasn't me," The girl stutters out, hiccups from the past few minutes of crying escaping, as she wipes her runny nose with the back of her palm.

Irina knows she's lying, can tell from her shifty eyes, filled with fear and guilt, and the way she tries to cover her hands with the sleeves of her oversized sweater that she knows exactly what happened. And though it should not be possible, she understands it can happen. She's a prime example of that improbable possibility.

She's about to offer the girl some reassurance but the sound of voices approaching and a distant siren cause her to act quickly, instinctively.

She grabs the girl, who is too shocked from the sudden movement to react, and rapidly speeds into the forest, going far enough in that they won't be walked upon or heard.

As soon as she places the girl on the ground, she's stumbling away from her in fear, wide eyes looking at her as though she were an impossibility.

"Wh-how did you do that?" She asks, a slight tremor in her voice.

For but a slight second, she hesitates on answering the girl. She hadn't had time to think of the consequences of her actions, she just had to make sure the girl wasn't caught by anyone who could find out what she could do and harm her for it.

But she knows that if the girl truly is the cause for the fire that erupted out of nowhere and latched onto that man, and only him, then she would need to know she's not alone in that. So she makes the decision to tell her of herself.

It wouldn't have to be everything, not yet, just enough to gain the girl's trust and help her.

And it'll definitely cure the boredom of her eternal life.

"I have certain _abilities_ ," Irina begins cautiously, before adding on, "And I think you have one as well." **  
**


	2. offers

**Disclaimer** : I do not claim any ownership over the ideas of others incorporated into this fic. It all belongs to it's rightful owners.

* * *

 **offers**

* * *

Bella is lying on a proper bed for the first time in months.

Her hair has been washed, her body scrubbed clean, and her teeth brushed.

It's a refreshing feeling, but she's still in a state of shock.

In the span of a short few hours, her life has changed tremendously once again.

 **.**

 _A short few hours beforehand…_

Bella watches as the woman - Irina, she'd said her name was - that saved her from being exposed strides back and forth. The slow pace of her steps a huge contrast to the speed at which she's talking into the phone she'd pulled out moments before.

Since the woman had picked her up effortlessly and ran with her at a speed that was previously impossible in her mind, the scenery blurring in her peripherals, she's been trying to reconcile everything she'd thought up to that moment.

The moment it became real that she wasn't the only one born so monumentally different.

This woman seems to have at least one ability of her own, and a not-so-small part of her envies that it's only increased speed and not uncontrollable fire. She can't imagine many things going wrong with such an ability, and it looks like the woman has remarkable control over it.

That's what has her staying put; the woman promised to help her gain control of the flames. And apparently, the flames that have plagued her life since she first discovered it at the age of six is classified as a special ability.

To her, it's just become a curse of an ability.

Her mother definitely didn't see it as anything to be proud of, just an oddity that should be suppressed and ignored. And when not, just another thing to be punished for.

Sudden silence pulls her back from those quickly darkening thoughts.

The woman - Irina, she reminds herself once again - has finished the call and is turned to her with a small, satisfied smile gracing her lips.

"Come on, little one, my family has agreed to open our home to you," she tells her, a hand outstretched in invitation.

She hesitantly accepts it.

It's not like she has much else to look forward to.

 **.**

When they arrive in front of a large but homely house out in the middle of nowhere, she begins to regret just accepting this stranger's words and following her. She knows nothing of her but the little she'd been told just before she hopped onto her back as instructed and the woman took her to who knows where.

It had all been a blur once again.

Clumsily, she slides off Irina's back, feet taking a moment to steady themselves from the rapid speed of the blonde's run. And once she regains her balance on the steady ground, she looks back up at the house she's been offered a stay at.

It's beautiful, that much is evident.

There's a distinct feel to it that seems to blend seamlessly with the nature surrounding it for miles on all sides. And it's made mostly of dark wood, a complement to the myriad of trees.

A cold touch at her lower back startles her from her appreciation.

"There's more to see inside, little one," Irina tells her, amusement lacing her tone.

A slight blush of embarrassment coats her cheeks as she allows herself to be led into the house she'd been admiring for a bit too long. The inside is just as nice as the outside, but there's more of a modern look to it. Though there's not wood visible, she can still feel something homely about it.

It just looks lived in, really.

Her trepidation of accepting a stranger's invitation to their home lessens.

"Hello," a new voice speaks up, and she whirls around to come face to face with another woman, blonde as well.

"Um, hi," she replies, moving just a little closer to Irina, to familiarity.

Irina's arm wraps softly around her shoulder as she introduces the woman as her sister, Tanya.

She can see the resemblance in the golden color of their eyes, the paleness of their skin, and the blonde quality of their hair. But where Irina's hair is slightly wavy, the woman's is curly. Where Irina's hair is almost but not quite a dirty blonde, the woman's is more of a strawberry blonde. Where Irina is just an inch taller than her, the woman is that much shorter.

Yet the kindness in both of their eyes is the single most important similarity.

"We have another sister and two cousins living with us here, but I asked them to not be here when we arrived so as to not startle you, little one," Tanya tells her.

It's the first time she really notes the odd term of endearment both of them have used to refer to her.

She's thankful it's not sweetheart, that word is too tainted for her.

"Oh, thank you," she says in acknowledgement to Irina's sister, who sends her a small smile in welcome.

A glance is shared between the sisters then, and she just knows that there must have been some sort of communication between them as lips move but no sound reaches her ears.

Another similarity then.

Tanya straightens up, and Irina mimics her, before the shorter of the two clears her throat and offers, "I've set up a bedroom for you upstairs if you would like to freshen up and rest."

The tone of her voice is what alerts her to the fact that Irina must have told her sister everything that's happened. She doesn't know how she forgot about the way Irina herself had found her, but it all comes back to her and her shoulders hunch in renewed guilt at the thought of it.

Irina's hand squeezes her shoulder as though she knows what just went through her mind, and then it slides down across her back and to her other arm to slip into her own hand.

"Come on, little one, you need rest."

It doesn't occur to her then to wonder how Irina even came upon the scene in the alley.

 **.**

Irina had shown her the bathroom adjacent to the room they'd set up for her and had left her for a moment only to return with a set of clothes for her to sleep in. She'd taken it gratefully and had waited for her to leave before moving to close the bathroom door and get to showering.

It was the first true shower she'd had in weeks, the last had been at a gym she'd managed to sneak into before she'd left Washington hidden in a container of a truck heading to Canada.

Since then, she'd had to resort to standing out in rain and scrubbing herself in restrooms along the way to Alaska.

When she finished her extremely long shower, she stepped out to find that Irina had left a tube of toothpaste and a toothbrush on the sink for her.

She'd felt the cleanliness down to her very bones.

Putting on the clothes she'd been given, she stepped back into the room to find herself alone and the bed's cover turned over just enough for her to slide into.

Taking the hint, she had done exactly that.

Now she lays on a bed that feels much comfier than any she'd slept on before, staring up at the ceiling of the foreign room in contemplation of her new living conditions - a definite upgrade from the sights of just yesterday.

It's an unexpected grace.

But it's tainted by anxious thoughts as she wonders how long it will last. Worries that the next outburst of flames might cause enough damage to have her thrown out. Hopes that it doesn't ever happen.

And then she closes her eyes tight and wishes with all her heart that it somehow all works out.

Sleep comes surprisingly easy.

 **.:.**

"She's fallen asleep," Irina says as she walks down the stairs into the living room.

Carmen and Eleazar are making their way towards the chair seats, while Kate sits with her legs spread out along the couch, feet over Tanya's lap.

"Poor dear must have been exhausted," Carmen comments as she takes her seat right next to her mate, the two huddled in.

Irina nods in agreement as she pushes Kate's legs off the couch and takes a seat in between her sisters, saying, "When I followed her from the alley, I found her sobbing her little heart out against the side of a building." Her eyebrows furrow with concern, "It all must have caught up to her rather quickly."

"Can you explain what exactly happened, dear," Tanya tells her, hand moving up to rub her sister's shoulder in comfort.

"Well, she'd ran into me yesterday while running from this shop clerk because she'd stolen some things." Gasps of shock and concern meet her statement but she only continues, "Then I found her a few hours later sleeping in that alley, and now that I'm thinking about it again, she had been emitting this odd sort of heat," She pauses in contemplation and says, "But Tanya had called me before I could figure that out so I hadn't thought much of it."

"Why didn't you say anything while we were all here during the meeting that'd been called?" Eleazar asks.

"I didn't have much to say then, it was all just parts of my day. I didn't think much of it."

He nods in understanding of her answer.

"So after the meeting and then hunting, I ended up back in that town today and just knew I had to check up on her. I haven't seen a young girl out on the streets by herself in so long that it concerned me seeing her out there."

And they all know why such a thing would affect her so strongly, having all heard or seen firsthand Irina's own experiences on the streets as a young, human girl.

She pushes aside those distant memories and continues, "But when I got to the alley, I found this man talking to her. I didn't do anything at first because I didn't want to risk exposure for no reason, but he suddenly swings a knife at her," Gasps break out, "And by the time I drop down to help her, the man's rolling on the ground and covered in flames and she's already ran out."

"It came out of nowhere?" Kate questions her, confused.

"From one second to another, it appeared out of nowhere and the only conclusion I could come to was that she had been responsible." She turns to Eleazar then, asking, "I'd like you to confirm what her ability is once she's settled in."

"Of course, but why not check sooner?" He replies in question.

"I don't want her to be so focused on her ability and what she'd done with it. I don't think it's fully hit her that she might've killed that man."

The truth of her words gives them all new clarity of the situation. It's much more complicated than just changing her right off the bat, especially with her youth.

"But we can tell her about our own abilities though, right?" Kate asks with enthusiasm, trying to bring the mood back up.

Chuckles sound around the room, all knowing Kate is referencing to her own ability specifically. She's always up for shocking people, literally.

"Yes, Kate, but not too much. I only implied that we had abilities and did not mention that we're no longer human so please don't go overboard," Irina says, looking towards everyone.

They all nod in approval of her words, agreeing that it's a much better story to stick to; for now, at least. Irina does wish to tell the girl of their true nature, wholeheartedly believes that a human with an ability would be better off as a vampire from personal experience. And she's sure the others all agree as well.

"Alright, so since that's all been discussed, I still think we should introduce ourselves one by one," Tanya adds, "The girl will be overwhelmed enough as is and the more of us she meets, the more obvious it'll be that there's something different about us besides the abilities."

"Eleazar and I would not mind staying elsewhere until you believe she's ready to meet us, dear," Carmen replies to the leader of their coven, and her mate nods in agreement with her.

"Yeah, and I could meet her tomorrow!" Kate exclaims, clasping her hands and sitting upright, wide smile spread on her lips.

With everything decided on, they all settle down to talk of other subjects for a few more moments before the mated pair go off for the week, and the sisters settle down at different places in the house for the night, slight snoring becoming the background to their night.


	3. introductions

**Disclaimer** : I do not claim any ownership over the ideas of others incorporated into this fic. It all belongs to it's rightful owners.

* * *

 **introductions**

* * *

Panic is the first emotion to hit her when she wakes up to an unfamiliar ceiling.

Panic, and then fear.

That fear has her stumbling off the bed in a hurry and almost tripping onto the floor before everything comes flooding back to her in a second; she's safe.

Relief hits her then.

But it's only a brief respite before a crushing guilt weighs down her shoulders, forcing her onto the floor in a hunched position, head buried in hands, knees pulled up to chest. The memory of what she'd done to that man is at the forefront of her thoughts.

She doesn't even know if he could have survived.

She might have killed him, another body to add to her count of the last few months, and she hadn't been able do anything about any of them.

She hadn't wanted to hurt anyone. People she'd felt threatened by have fallen victims to these flames since that moment months ago when her whole world shattered in a sea of fire and ashes. She's figured that it must be some sort of fight or flight response her body has.

But it hadn't always been that way. As a kid, she'd been bullied by her classmates and friends had been hard to come by so she was no stranger to threats, but she'd never responded so violently.

She knows that _he_ is the cause of her newfound reflex to any feelings of danger, or fear.

There's no other explanation. It was the beginning of it all. Suddenly, the memory of what happened months ago, and all the incidents since then, start cycling through her mind without any conscious thought.

Flashes of scenes, of flames, that she tries to block out bombard her mind and she's left defenseless against the onslaught of memories.

Her breaths start to quicken, and she feels the beginnings of a panic attack coming on, tingles shooting up her fingers in response, spreading throughout her palms as the panicked fear escalates, and she squeezes both her hands and eyes in a fight for control.

She doesn't want to have another outburst.

She can't have another outburst.

Not now.

Please, not now.

"Little one?"

The concerned voice breaks through the images running through her mind, like a wave crashing onto the sand, sudden, and she looks up towards the door startled.

 _Irina_ , her mind provides. Irina, who had seen what she'd done and hadn't crucified her for it, who had instead shown her she wasn't alone in this world. Irina, who had asked her family to welcome her into their home, who had offered to help her learn to control the flames.

Irina, who has given her hope.

She uses that knowledge of the woman to center her to the present forcing the memories back to the recess of her mind, rebuilding the compartments that held them at bay and allowed her to keep going.

Her fists uncurl as the panic resides, and her body soon follows.

"Y-yes?" She calls out, only noticing then that her body had been shaking as her voice stutters, and the tremors start to lessen.

"Breakfast has been made, come down whenever you're ready."

"Okay, I'll uh, I'll be down soon."

There's a moment of silence that stretches on for only a beat before Irina responds, "Alright, little one."

And then she's left to pull herself together into a semblance of calm once more. Getting up, she heads to the bathroom attached to the room she slept in and splashes water onto her face from the sink.

She watches droplets run down her face as she stares at her reflection.

It occurs to her then that she hadn't given Irina her own name.

 **.:.**

Irina makes her way towards the kitchen where Tanya is just finishing up making the breakfast food they'd bought for their new guest.

"So?" Kate inquires from her position on the stool besides where the little one is to sit as Irina walks in.

"She seems fine for now, but that had to be some sort of breakdown she was having. Humans do not take in breaths that quickly, and their hearts should definitely not be thumping that fast."

"What do you think happened?"

"We can only guess that the events of the past day must have hit her all at once to have such a reaction. It seems she recovered rapidly however, so maybe it was some sort of confusion," Tanya speaks up.

Shaking her head at her own confusion about the girl's sudden reactions that had her speeding upstairs to check on her, Irina makes her way toward the other side of the kitchen counter besides the human's reserved seat.

Sometimes, Irina wishes her ability was to read others instead of blocking them out, but it's just a fleeting feeling of frustration at the lack of knowledge about others.

She's not really sure about anything involving the human girl she's brought to their home.

Well, she's not sure about anything but the fact that they have to help her.

She just hopes that they can.

 **.:.**

Once early morning hit and the groceries had opened, Tanya had volunteered to go out and buy some food since they'll now have a human to feed. Not to mention, it would seem weird to the girl if there's not much in the way of food when she's still under the impression that they're still human themselves.

Tanya's watched enough cooking shows to know how to make a simple egg, bacon and pancake breakfast, so she's also volunteered to cook the food with the help of detailed instructions in the form of steps.

She actually finds the motions of doing so calming, but she could do without the smell.

Kate had grumbled about the scent of human food for a bit before a stern look from Tanya had quieted her. Irina herself didn't care much for it either way, though it's not really all that bad in her opinion, it just takes some getting used to.

Besides, both other sisters know Kate just likes to complain about things, it's one of her many favorite pastimes.

The sound of light footsteps descending the staircase causes all three sisters to turn their heads in that direction as the girl comes into view, wearing the clothes she'd been given yesterday by Irina.

Kate's clothes.

She makes her way towards them somewhat shyly, and Kate waits only until the little one is close enough to hear her to say, "You could have asked for my permission, you know," and pointedly looks at the clothing the girl's wearing, a teasing lilt to her voice that seems to go over the human's head entirely.

"Oh! I-I'm sorry, I didn't know - "

She's cut off by Irina, who has walked to stand besides her, placing a comforting hand on the small of her back and gently urging her towards the seat Tanya had just placed a plate of food in front of, "Ignore her comment, she has a unique sense of humor that seems to thrive off making others uncomfortable."

It's another one of those pastimes of hers.

"You haven't even introduced me yet and you're already speaking badly of me," Kate 'tsks' as she narrows golden eyes at her sister before turning a softer gaze to the human, "I'm Kate by the way, the superior sister." Her words are accompanied by a slight raise of the chin and a straightened posture before a smack to the back of her head has her hunching while rubbing said spot in soothing circles, "Hey! That was uncalled for."

Tanya ignores her and addresses their human guest, "Speaking of introductions, I don't believe I caught your name yesterday, dear."

The question brings a blush to the girl's cheeks as she answers, "It's Isabella."

The rush of blood only brings a slight darkening to each of the sister's eyes, undetectable to the human eye, before they shake off the slight burn in their throats and continue on with the conversation.

"It's nice to meet you then, Isabella," Kate says, holding her hand out in invitation, looking forward to the handshake.

Bella goes to clasp the hand offered to her but is once again cut off by Irina, who is shooting her own glare at the other blonde, "Why don't you go ahead and eat, little one, I want to talk to you afterwards."

Kate retracts her hand in irritation at her spoiled fun, while a slightly confused Bella just turns to the plate of food and does as told.

Tanya shakes her head in the background in mock disapproval.

 **.:.**

She's not sure exactly what happened but the past moment's weirdness quickly leaves her mind at the first taste of breakfast.

A moan escapes her mouth at how good a home cooked meal tastes, and with a sight blush she looks up at the sisters to see them all with identical smirks on their faces. It only causes her to blush more.

She can see the resemblance in all three of them, the same similarities Irina and Tanya share evident in Kate as well. But there's also marked differences between them all, enough that if it weren't for those similarities one would not believe them to be sisters.

Kate looks like she might be taller than the other two, and her hair is both completely straight and a pale blonde in comparison to her sisters. And though the kindness shines in her eyes as well, there's also a spark of mischief that has her feeling both curious and frightened of what's going on in that mind of hers.

She hopes she doesn't find out any time soon, it's sure to be at her discomfort.

Looking up towards the sister she knows most, her eyebrows furrow when faced with Irina's questioning eyes. She realizes as the blonde's eyebrow quirks up that she'd been staring at them all for a bit too long and she quickly turns back to her food.

As she clears the eggs off the plate and moves on to the pancakes, she wonders if her face will be permanently tinted red in their presence.

And then she thinks of how she wouldn't mind it much if it meant staying here.

Throughout it all, she never questions their lack of eating.


	4. memories

**Disclaimer** : I do not claim any ownership over the ideas of others incorporated into this fic. It all belongs to it's rightful owners.

* * *

 **memories**

* * *

Breakfast is accompanied by chattering from the three sisters.

They bicker back and forth with a teasing familiarity that must have been born from years growing up together. And for a brief moment, she wonders of their childhoods and how their abilities affected them as they grew. If they found out when they were still young enough to believe that what they could do was special.

She wonders if they experienced the loneliness she felt, despite having one another, but hopes that their lives were a world different from hers.

Happy and fulfilling.

She thinks it could have been. There's an easy flow to their interactions, one that seems free of any concerns or past troubles. It ebbs enough for her to add some of her own bits of banter, giving her a taste of what that joyful upbringing could have been like.

It keeps her entertained and prevents her thoughts from straying to dark places. And for the first time in too long a while, she finds a sort of peace.

It's refreshing to be in such company after all she's experienced.

 **.:.**

 _She's six when she first discovers fire and her particular affinity for it._

 _Her mother, Renee, is on the phone talking to someone about something she doesn't catch as she walks into the kitchen in that exploring way young kids move about._

 _She got bored of waiting for her in the other room surrounded by toys she's lost interest in._

 _The flame is at first covered from her view. But then her mother pulls away from her conversation long enough to pick the pot of boiled pasta up off the stove and to the sink. She turns her back to it as she goes about pouring the pasta into another cylinder to clear out the water._

 _And she's free to sneak in._

 _She spots the flames left to the open air right away and her young mind is instantly sparked with intrigue. Now able to avoid being spotted by her distracted mother, she makes her way to the stove and stands in front of it, just staring, for a few seconds of contemplation._

 _The color and movement of it fascinates her young mind._

 _She decides to further her investigation by raising a cautious hand and reaching out to touch the mesmerizing flames. Warmth is the only sensation she gets from the action, not a burning heat but a comforting stroke, and her eyes widen in surprise as her hand passes through the blue-tinted flames over and over again._

 _She's six, and she thought it was the best thing she'd ever discovered._

 _Until a gasp breaks through the silence she hadn't noticed._

 _It's the only warning she gets before her hand is suddenly ripped from the flames and her body turned around as her now frantic mother inspects the limb. Fear turns into confusion and shock as all she finds is unmarred skin, not even tinged the slightest bit red from exposed heat._

 _Despite the lack of harm done, she's still scolded for her actions and sent back to the living room and the toys she'd previously abandoned with a warning to not move again._

 _But thoughts of the flame lingered as little six year old her easily complied with her mother's wishes._

 _A fascination had been sparked that day, and it would only grow as the months went on._

 **.:.**

"Isabella?"

She's pulled out of the memory by the sound of her name being called by Irina, who now stands at her side, her sisters nowhere to be seen.

"Yeah?" She replies, but there's confusion laced in her tone as to where the other two had gone off to. She hadn't even realized it when she drifted off.

"I wanted to have that talk I mentioned before and figured it'd be better if my sisters weren't here to overwhelm you," She's told in a soothing voice, and she stands up from the stool she'd been using as Irina places a hand on her back to steer her from the kitchen.

Their destination becomes evident when they're within reach of the archway to the living room.

"Um, okay. What exactly do you want to talk about?"

The blonde gestures to the couch, and she sits down as asked, her hands twisting nervously in her lap, fingers fiddling with each other and eyes downcast, watching the movement and avoiding eye contact.

A pale hand covers both of her own, stilling the motion as a voice reassuringly replies, "It's nothing bad, I promise. I just want to talk about what you know of your abilities, that's all."

"Oh."

She doesn't really know much about them, never having had the chance to explore it much after her first few encounters with fire when she was younger. She'd been banned from playing with any sort of flame by her mother the last time she'd tried at eight years of age, and she hadn't.

It was the first demand she listened to so fully.

 **.:.**

 _She finds the matches tucked toward the back of a kitchen drawer this time, her mother having moved it from the last place when she'd found her trying to light one to no avail._

 _She's hidden out in the backyard, having learned her lesson getting caught while still in the kitchen the last time. This time, after she strikes the match against the box for the third time, it lights up and the orange-yellow flame glows in the reflections of her eyes as she stares in amazement._

 _Lowering the flame-lit match towards her open palm, she narrows her eyes in concentration as the flame follows her movement. And when she wishes it to, the flame moves from the matchstick onto her open palm._

 _She gasps at her success._

 _And then pushes it to grow._

 _With all her focus on trying to get the little flame to become bigger, her little heart growing even more excited as it seems to be working, she doesn't hear the door to the yard slide open, nor the light footsteps that make their way towards her location._

 _In a mirror of that first time, her mother's gasp of shock is what finally makes her aware that she's no longer alone._

 _She hurries to put out the flame but her rush only causes her to drop it onto the grass of the yard, as though it was a drop of water, and the grass quickly catches on fire. Her mother is forced to take off the jacket she'd been wearing and throw it over the lit up patch, and then stomp on it to put out the fire before it can do any more damage to the yard._

 _When her mother finally looks at her, huddled on the ground and trying to hide herself away, her eyes are laden with a fear that shouldn't be there._

 _There's something foreboding about the words that she drills into her._

 _"You are to never, ever do that again."_

 _She doesn't reply and it only serves to infuriate her, turning that spark of fear into a blaze of anger as she marches towards her, causing her to flinch, and grabs hold of both her arms, hauling her to her feet._

 _"Listen to me! Don't ever touch, or even look, at any sort of fire. What you just did, Bella, it's unnatural. Never do that again. Understand?"_

 _And she nods in agreement of her words this time, scared of the look in her mother's eyes and pained at the way she quickly lets go of her when she gets her consent._

 _It's a look that never goes away in the following eight years._

 **.:.**

"I don't really know a lot about it," She finally says, not clarifying that she'd tried to learn about it but stopped out of fear of what others would think of her, what her mother thought of her.

She doesn't want to talk about that woman now after having such a good time with the sisters during breakfast.

It's already too much replaying those memories.

"Well, then we'll start off small. To gain control of any ability, you have to practice it, learn about it. That's what gives you the control, knowing."

She understands what she means, understands that fear is what causes lost of control and that people only fear that which they don't comprehend. She knows that all too well from her experiences growing up.

And she wants that control, the knowledge to prevent another incident, but she needs a break from it.

"Okay, but maybe we could wait a while before starting those lessons?" Comes her tentative reply, "I'd really rather just relax and enjoy living under a roof again. Just not worry for once, you now."

Her words are just a statement of fact to her. She hasn't lived in a house for months, and hasn't felt as comfortable as she had this morning for years. Her own home grew tense after her mother bore witness to her ability to manipulate fire, and when he moved in, things only got worse for her there.

But even though her words are just plain truth to her, she can see it in Irina's eyes that the woman feels bad about what she'd just said.

She doesn't know how to fix that, so she waits for Irina to shake it off and answer her request.

"Alright, little one," Irina turns from her, pulling back the hand Bella hadn't realized had still been holding on to her own, and then she asks, "How about playing some games then?"

The shout of agreement doesn't come from her, however, and her lips quirk up in amusement as Irina's turn down in annoyance. Kate unabashedly strides into the room and towards the TV to turn on the game console all the while enthusiastically chatting away about her favorite games. Tanya comes in at her heel and sits on the other side of Bella, squeezing her shoulder quickly in a comforting gesture before leaning back and watching her sister set things up.

It's all so natural and normal.

That peaceful enjoyment seeps back into her.


	5. anticipation

**Disclaimer** : I do not claim any ownership over the ideas of others incorporated into this fic. It all belongs to it's rightful owners.

* * *

 **anticipation**

* * *

For the past half hour or so, the four of them have been talking about small things here and there - from favorite games to random anecdotes about their lives - as they switched seats to play the current game of choice.

After the latest bout of discussion that ended up with Kate and Irina bickering over the true events of an incident, Bella decides to start up a conversation with a question that's been on her mind.

"So Kate's the youngest?"

It should have been an innocent enough inquiry, one anybody who only recently just met the three sisters would wonder about, especially after their latest interaction. And yet, the reactions she receives from the question range from insulted to downright amused, leaving her wishing she had never asked. Kate the former, Irina the latter, and Tanya keeping her amusement restricted to the shine in her eyes.

"No, I am _not_. Why would you think that?" The indignant question from Kate is met by a snicker from Irina and, from the corner of her eye, Bella can see that Tanya's amusement has cracked a smile in response.

"Um, well," She's not sure she wants to explain her reasoning from observing them. She can already tell the other two won't be lending her any help. And she's figured out there's not many responses she can give and get off scot clean with.

But then a thought comes to mind, and she quickly says it to Kate, "Your appearance gave me the impression you were the youngest of the three, around 20 maybe."

Age tends to be a sensitive topic to women, generally, and so implying such youthfulness of one's appearance always does the trick. At least, that's what she's learned from entertainment media, like the shows her mother always had on.

Though it was not word for word, it seems to work.

"Oh!" The expression on Kate's face shifts from consternation to smugness in less than a second, and she turns to look over her two sisters with a critical eye, "Hm yes, their old age does show doesn't it."

Bella doesn't comment, not wanting to find herself insulting the other two sisters as well in a bid to retract her first question.

That lesson has been learnt, quickly.

But Kate doesn't ask for confirmation to her statement, she just continues on explaining, "I happen to in fact be the oldest, you see, but my sisters just didn't inherit my natural beauty and agelessness it seems." She says it with an air of arrogance around her, though her eyes sparkle with some mischief.

Bella thinks there's something in Kate's words she missed from the way Irina rolls her eyes and Tanya shakes her head almost simultaneously.

Like an inside joke she's unaware of.

Or maybe that's just their reaction to Kate's behavior.

Either way, she figures it's time to turn the conversation in another direction before this one gets further out of hand. And she already has a topic in mind.

Earlier, when she'd been heading down for breakfast, she had passed by a den that held what seemed like hundreds of books on shelves all across the room. It looked inviting, and it's been awhile since she last had the peace of mind to sit down and immerse herself in a book, so she interjects before anyone else can speak up in reply or continuation to Kate's words.

"Hey, I was wondering if I could borrow a book?" She directs the question at Tanya, figuring she would be the easiest one to shift the focus with.

Plus, it seems that most of those books might belong to her, or Irina, as she doubts Kate reads so much.

And it looks like her intuition had been correct in a way.

"Oh of course, little one. Why don't you come with me, and I'll show you our selection," Tanya responds, a smile fully curving her lips as she gets up off the couch she'd been sharing with her.

Bella hadn't expected that, thinking she'd just get permission before browsing for a book a bit later on. _This is better though_ , she thinks while hopping up off the cushion she'd been sitting on.

She awkwardly waves a hand in goodbye at Irina who returns it with a soft smile and nod. Looking towards Kate, she quirks both eyebrows in amusement at the oldest sister who's now looking at her reflection in a metal pan, and then follows Tanya towards the room full of books she'd spotted earlier on.

Her time here is sure to be entertaining, at least, with all the antics the sisters seem to get into.

And she's actually very thankful for that.

 **.**

When she enters the room behind Tanya, her eyes open wide in amazement at what a selection they have.

There are so many more books than she'd glimpsed before.

The walls that are not obstructed by the door or a window are all lined with floor-to-ceiling shelves, each full to the brim with books. Comfortable looking chairs rest on either side of a small round table on one side of the room. And in front of where the largest window is placed rests a long desk made of a dark wood with a chair pulled up to it, books also stacked on one corner while a lamp sits on the other, the rest clear of clutter.

It's an amazing room, one Bella hopes to spend a lot of time in.

She tells Tanya as much, and when she finally looks away from perusing the room and books to glance at her, she finds her golden eyes staring back at her and a small smile lacing her lips.

"Reading is a great pastime for us." The blonde tells her as she comes to stand beside her.

Bella hadn't even noticed herself move forward in her excitement until she moved to join her, but she just shrugs off her mindlessness in the face of such wonder.

It's understandable, she's sure.

"Well, the room looks like a great place to enjoy reading," She tells Tanya, her eyes once again roaming over the room, looking at the sides of hundreds upon hundreds of books, and adds on, "I've never known anyone with so many books in their possession. I checked out most of the books I've read from the library."

She really can't believe they own so many, it's like their own mini library. She herself was lucky to get a book on her birthday the few times her mother thought to celebrate it. And the only reason she was able to check books out from a library was because it was her school's.

"Well, you're free to select any book to read from here, dear," Tanya tells her.

And she doesn't have to be told _that_ twice.

 **.:.**

Tanya smiles as the girl quickly makes her way towards a shelf to better read the titles, watching as she occasionally takes a book out to look over the summary before carefully returning it to its place, like she doesn't want to harm it.

And she could swear she sees her wipe a small bit of drool with the back of her hand at one point in her examination.

 _So easily amazed_ , she thinks with a chuckle of amusement, leaning back against the armrest of the chair closest to the door. But then the thought of what her life might have been like to be so captured by something so simple brings her mood down.

It's evident that the girl has already been hurt and tainted by the powerlessness so often associated with gifted humans, though she can't be certain to what extent.

Irina had told them of the girl's homelessness, of how she had to resort to stealing from stores for sustenance. She and Kate both had their own troubles growing up and before they'd been turned by their mutual maker, Sasha. But it's more of a familiar plight to her sister, who experienced something of the same when a young girl herself.

So though it had been a quick decision on Irina's part to bring the girl to their home, she does not fault her sister, not after having met the girl herself.

Before even knowing of her ability, Irina had seen something in the girl, that only allowed them the opportunity to get to know her better much faster. And now that she can see what it is about her that drew her sister in, she's fully in agreement with Irina over helping her, making sure that she's able to control her ability until they're able to change her.

Humans just can't handle the strain of these abilities, their bodies not meant for such a toll of energy.

It's why they so rarely manifest while one is still human, and why cases like these are so rarely found. But the fact that this girl has an ability already so developed only means that she'll be powerful once a vampire with full control.

She's glad they'll be the ones helping the girl reach that full potential.

Her only true concern is how the girl will take to the news that they're no longer humans. It's always a toss up on how someone might react to learning that vampires are real. But they want to give the girl the same chance they'd all been given by Sasha, the chance to better their lives. They just need to convince the girl of that decision. And with all that she seems to have gone through, Tanya doesn't believe she'll resist much.

Especially since they are offering the girl much more than mere immortality.

They are offering her control of her ability, yes, but also a better life as a member of their coven; a place in their home. And they all would really like to have the girl become a part of their family, so Tanya hopes the girl will choose as they did.

 _Maybe it's time to discuss telling her more sooner_ , she thinks.

The sound of Isabella's voice pulls her from her musings, and she pushes the thought to the back of her mind to be talked over later.

 **.:.**

There are far too many books for her to just choose one so Bella goes with the first to fully capture her attention, a classic.

"I haven't read this in so long," She whispers to herself as she moves her fingers almost reverently over the cover of the book she's holding.

Well, she thought she had whispered.

"Have you decided then?" Tanya speaks up, voice tinted with amusement as well as something unidentifiable, and Bella jumps a little at the seemingly sudden reply to her statement.

She really needs to be more aware of her surroundings.

Turning to the blonde a bit sheepishly, she gathers the book close to her chest and nods, saying, "Yeah, it'll be great to re-read a favorite. It's kind of been a while."

And that's an understatement. It's been much longer than just a while.

"I'll leave you to it then, dear. Come find one of us or just shout if you need anything, okay?"

She nods in both agreement and thanks, then watches Tanya leave before making her way to the chair a bit further from the door. A sigh of pleasure leaves her lips as she sinks into it, the chair seeming to mold around her body, shaping itself to fit her.

The familiar feeling of anticipation arises in her as she opens the book to the first page of chapter one, and a smile graces her lips unconsciously.

 _And so it begins._

 **.:.**

When she returns to the living room, Tanya finds both her sisters still there playing another game.

She moves to join them on the couch, the middle sister in the middle seat, and waits for Kate to beat out Irina in the match before bringing up the thoughts she just had. And as their discussion moves from thoughts of Isabella to plans of when to tell her everything, they all seem to experience the same feeling.

Anticipation.


	6. decisions

**Disclaimer** : I do not claim any ownership over the ideas of others incorporated into this fic. It all belongs to it's rightful owners.

* * *

 **decisions**

* * *

The conversation is long but reassuring to Irina.

She knows it's only a matter of time until Isabella starts asking about the things that don't quite fit with them. Knows that their lack of eating is bound to become noticeable after a while. That their avoidance of the sun will become a problem as summer approaches. And that the many holes that'll inevitably crop up as the girl questions their histories will surely give away all is not as it seems.

Her awareness of the eventual and unavoidable reveal of their nature is the reason she immediately offers to tell Isabella herself once Tanya brings it up.

"After all," she tells her sisters, "I'm the first one she met. It'll be taken better coming from me."

Both of them nod in agreement of her words, and just like that it's decided that she will be the one to spill their biggest secret to a human they have only recently met. And though none of them have ever thought of such a thing happening before, Irina is confident in the decision to welcome the girl to their coven.

There were few times in her life that she felt something so deeply, and this was one of them. That girl sitting in their den, reading a book without a care for what must be the first time in who knows how long, is meant to be with them. She had been drawn in from the moment she first saw her, curiosity burning in her, and it all led them to this moment.

Now all that's left to do is get the okay from the last two members of their coven, Eleazar and Carmen, as they always ensure everyone has their say in anything that would affect the whole coven, and this will definitely do so.

When she brings it up, Tanya cuts in with a suggestion at the ready, letting her know she's not the only one thinking of all that needs to be done.

"Kate and I could go and talk with them while you attend to Isabella. She needs to have dinner at some point today, and it sounds like she's done with her reading."

At her sister's final words, the slight snoring that had started up moments after their discussion first began pierces the air, and a smile tilts her lips upwards. The girl really does have a presence about her, something that has become rather enjoyable to experience.

The three separate with quick nods, and Irina heads to the kitchen to cook up a meal for their guest.

 **.:.**

For Bella, the past few hours were spent in absolute bliss.

She had plunged head first into the world of another reality and completely immersed herself in an old time favorite tale of hers, one with a guaranteed happy ending and just the right mix of angst and fluff to take her mind off other topics.

The first couple of hours she'd spent reading were some of the best moments she'd had in awhile. Old memories of when she first began the series floating whimsically at the back of her mind as the pages flew by. That contentment was most definitely the reason she hadn't noticed the slowly creeping exhaustion that had snuck up and lulled her into a deep sleep, body huddled into the comfiness of the den chair.

Her light snores echoed around the room until she's woken up for dinner over an hour after Morpheus had claimed her.

She's startled into consciousness.

When she looks up at what caused her sudden waking, she sees Irina standing at her side, arms lazily crossed and expression ripe with amusement. Following her gaze, Bella takes one look at the position she'd fallen asleep in and blushes heavily in embarrassment. Hurriedly picking the book up from where it'd fallen on her stomach, she closes it and then places it on the small table as she moves her feet off the chair.

"Uh, hey, what's up?" she says.

"Hello, dear," Irina replies with a quirked eyebrow of barely restrained humor as she explains, "Your dinner will get cold if you wait any longer."

"Oh yeah, sorry, must have fallen asleep while I was reading," she tells the blonde sheepishly, head tilted slightly downwards and shoulders moving up and down in a 'my bad' movement while she tucks a loose strand of her behind her ear.

"Don't worry, it's fine. I went ahead and ate my portion but Kate and Tanya have gone out to eat, so I'll just be keeping you company as you have your meal."

Bella's brows furrow momentarily at the news before just shrugging off the questions prickling at the edge of her mind and standing up from her seat. It'll be nice to have someone to talk to at least.

"Alright, cool."

The two make their way to the kitchen in comfortable silence, Bella slightly behind the blonde as they walk. Once there, Irina immediately heads to the stove from where she serves a plate of the remaining food for Bella as she takes a seat at the chair she'd been pointed to the first time.

A warm thank you falls from Bella's lips as Irina hands her the plate, but it's promptly waved away by the blonde who proceeds to lean on the counter across from Bella and tilts her head in question.

"So, what were you reading?"

 **.:.**

Miles out from the house, Tanya and Kate are ushered into the cabin the mated pair have taken residence up in since Isabella's arrival.

The cabin is pretty small, decorated with the barest essentials as none of them really need much in a home, and located far enough from any towns to avoid curiosity. It actually belongs to the coven, one of many homes they have in case it's ever needed or desired. And it has that same woodsy feeling their main house does, though it's felt even more so there, hidden amongst nature.

The four take a seat around the small living area, and the sisters begin to inform the coven of all they have observed and decided within the past day or so.

It's not as long a conversation.

They reason: No Volturi law is being broken as they fully plan on changing the girl. Yes, it might be years before it happens given the girl's age, but it will happen. And that time in between would give them the opportunity to further gain the girl's trust, to explain things in a manner that won't leave the human frightened of them or their nature.

"It's the best course of action," Tanya tells them, and Kate backs her up with a decisive nod of the head.

In the end, once it's all been laid out, it isn't hard in the slightest to gain the agreement of the other two members of their coven, both fully understanding their reasoning and concerns.

With the serious business aspects resolved, the conversation turns to other matters and the visit turns familial as they settle in for a good night of hanging out.

 **.:.**

For Bella and Irina, dinner is a quieter affair.

Not much noise breaks the calm of the evening besides their mellow conversations and the occasional clanging of Bella's fork on the plate as she scoops up the noodles.

Bella tells the blonde of the book she'd selected, the rare, fond childhood memories of time spent reading the whole series under the covers with a flashlight way past her bedtime, of waiting weeks for the next book to be returned so she could have her turn at reading it. The topic leads her down a path of recalled memories as each is dredged up from the recess of her mind, her smile widening and eyes brightening with every one she retells.

Irina smiles and nods along to the stories but doesn't provide any from her own past. Rather, she tells her amusing tales of her travels across the globe, most involving her sisters and a few including their cousins as well.

Bella quietly laughs at the antics she can see them getting up to.

It's another nice moment added to her growing collection of memories here with the Denali family.

Once she's done with her meal, Bella smiles a silent thanks towards Irina, hoping to convey that it's for much more than the great dinner she just finished. Irina replies with a smile of her own that somehow assures her the sentiment was picked up, and Bella offers to clean up the dishes in further thanks to her host.

Hand holding the dirty plate captive, Irina only agrees to let her wash the dishes on one condition: she gets to assist with the drying.

Bella agrees with an exaggerated sigh and the plate is released, allowing her to walk around to the sink. The two start up another conversation as they work, Bella washing a dish with the scrubbing brush then passing it to Irina to dry and put away.

They're done in no time and the two rest against the counter for a while after, still talking in low tones interspersed by chuckles and bursts of mirth.

The other two have yet to return by the time a lull forms in their conversation. Bella worries aloud of their safety given the late hour and resulting darkness, but Irina assures her that it's not unusual for her sisters to still be out at this time of night.

"We're night owls," she says with a small quirk of the lips.

And though she's still worried, knowing the dangers that are out there, Bella nods her understanding and decides to trust in Irina's knowledge of her sisters. After all, her circumstances were far different to the sisters' and the likelihood that they would run into trouble while out to dinner is rather slim.

With those final words, Bella bids the blonde a goodnight, smile once more forming her lips, and then makes her way upstairs to the room she'd been given.

 **.**

Unbeknownst to her, the blonde's contemplative eyes follow her up until she disappears around the corner.


	7. nightmares

**Disclaimer** : I do not claim any ownership over the ideas of others incorporated into this fic. It all belongs to its rightful owners.

* * *

 **nightmares**

* * *

The following day starts off just as well as the previous one had.

(Minus the not-so-slight panic attack, that is.)

Breakfast is fast becoming Bella's favorite time, even if she ends up being the only person eating. The sisters all seem to wake up much earlier than her despite their late nights, so they're all finished with their meals by the time Bella wakes up enough to head downstairs.

She doesn't mind it though, since all three of the sisters remain at the counter to keep her company while she's eating her own meal.

The fact that she gets to eat an actual homemade breakfast is just the vanilla icing on the cake. And given that it hasn't been the case for months, she can't find it in herself to feel awkward about being the only one chewing food between sentences.

All in all, it's an experience she cherishes.

There isn't much for her to do afterwards, however, as she doesn't have anything of importance needing her attention. She no longer goes to school, can't possibly go even if she wanted to, and she just came to live with the sisters so she has nothing of her own. As a result, she whiles away the time reading.

She's not sure what the sisters do in that time but she can hear them moving around sometimes.

The sound of the television in the living room breaks through the silence of the den at one point, but it's otherwise quiet throughout the house.

The lack of sounds in the background is considerably different to the noise of the cities and towns she'd taken refuge in for a few nights at a time. The rare occasions where she'd manage to find a building to stay in don't even compare to the atmosphere of the house. There's a certain feeling of security that comes from staying here, a sense of calm.

It's still very much a surreal feeling for her to be free of worry about anyone coming upon her and causing her trouble, but she's enjoying it.

She feels secure in the knowledge that these sisters are genuinely just wanting to help her and don't expect anything of her in repayment for their kindness. Although she had tried to do something to thank them, telling Irina if they needed anything done around the house that she'd be more than willing to do it, she'd been declined.

Apparently, she'd been taken very seriously when she asked for time to relax and enjoy her new situation before the focus turned to her ability. The sisters want to give her that, and she won't argue with their kindness.

She manages to finish the book she'd started yesterday before her stomach's growling brings attention to her renewed hunger.

It's another novel feeling to know that she has an assured source of food now, that she doesn't have to steal her meals to eat. The smell of food in the kitchen when she enters is a testament to that, as is Tanya's smile when she gives her the go ahead to take as much as she wants.

She isn't accompanied for lunch since the sisters don't really eat their meals in the actual kitchen/dining room. They had wanted her to settle in okay yesterday and get to know her, so that was why they had their meals together. Instead, the sisters tend to do their own thing, eat at their own time and just be. It must be something that comes with the freedom of being adults living on their own because Bella can still clearly remember being forced to eat at the dining table every meal.

Either way, happily taking a page out of their book, she goes and eats her lunch in the den after finding herself the next book in the series to continue reading.

The time passes fast in this manner - reading, eating, occasional bathroom break, repeat - and before she knows it, it's time for bed.

Dinner had been brought to her by Tanya as well, who insisted she just stay in her seat and enjoy her dinner and book, chatting with her for a moment about it before going on her way. After she finished her reading for the day, she'd taken the dishes to the kitchen and washed them before seeking out Irina to ask her about the clothes she'd brought with her.

They'd been washed but Irina had also lent her some more make-shift pajamas - consisting of a t-shirt and shorts - that also belonged to Kate and had been happily offered.

They're the closest in size it seems.

She thanked Irina and asked her to thank Kate before heading to shower in the bathroom adjoined to the room she's staying in, a luxury she's particularly enjoying soaking in. It's definitely a longer shower than necessary as she hadn't done much that day, but the water runs soothingly down her body and she can't bring herself to move from under the spray for a while.

When she finally does, the skin on her fingers have pruned from the prolonged exposure to water.

Getting ready for bed is a much quicker endeavor and she finds herself once more laying on the comfy bed, staring at the ceiling in amazement at how different things are from a couple days ago. All those times she wished to barely visible stars for things to get better have finally come through for her, and she couldn't be more grateful.

She really hopes things last.

Closing her eyes in her new found contentment, she surrenders to the lure of sleep that's been pulling at her.

Since she'd done well in keeping her mind off certain topics throughout the day, she hadn't expected anything drastic to be dredged up in that sleep she so easily succumbed to.

But something does.

And that night, her dreams turn against her for the first time in weeks and twisted memories are painted against the back of her eyelids with vivid imagery.

 **.:.**

 _She looks around in confusion as she finds herself in a place she hasn't seen for months._

 _The walls look the same, painted that dreary beige and covered in pieces of paintings that couldn't really be called art. The same furniture she'd looked at and used for over a decade rest in the very same spots she'd last seen them in. Even the smell of the place is the exact same as it'd been._

 _It's eerie in its likeness and for a moment she panics that she'd never managed to leave the place at all._

 _But then it quickly becomes clear to her she's dreaming as things start to haze and contort until the exact events of that night start playing out. She wishes loudly to wake up, trying to force herself to consciousness by sheer force of will, but it's to no avail._

 _Forms start to take shape in the dream as the memory she tried hard to suppress - and thought she'd succeeded at doing so - resurfaces._

 _In seemingly seconds, she's standing in that dreaded hallway looking at him once more._

 _He wears that same disgusted, angered expression he'd worn that night, dressed in the same clothing. Looking down at herself, she notices that she too is wearing the clothes from that night and reality starts to blend into the dream. The longer it goes on and the more things begin to resemble that night, the further she's pulled into the memory until she's reliving it, no longer aware of it's falseness._

 _The fear seeps into her, as potent as it'd been that night, and she finds herself cowering as his shouts echo throughout the small home, hands waving around aggressively while he hurls insult after insult at her._

 _He calls her a disappointment._

 _Unnatural._

 _Freak._

 _She tries to remain impassive on the outside as the mixture of terror and anger slowly growing within her starts to take over._

 _And it's as she's too focused on maintaining a calm exterior that it happens, and she doesn't see it coming until it's too late. In one moment, she's standing feet from him as he's shouting at her about what a disgrace she's become and in the next a large hand is flying towards her face. She has no time to react to the motion and a loud smack resounds around the room._

 _She lifts a hand to her reddened cheek in shock._

 _He pants in puffs of anger._

 _When he goes to hit her again, she responds with a raised arm to block herself but the force of his fist colliding with her arm is enough to throw her off balance and she falls to the carpeted floor._

 _It still hurts her._

 _He takes this as an advantage and climbs on top of her, holding her down with one arm while throwing punches with the other._

 _She struggles to avoid and dodge the worst of the blows but is quickly losing control._

 _The mix of emotions that's been welling up inside her since the screaming began is pushing at her, and each blow is igniting her fight or flight instincts. Within a moment's decision, as a fist makes contact with her face, her body chooses her response and something seems to burst within her as she raises an arm to cover herself and the other to retaliate._

 _What happens next frightens her._

 **.**

 _It comes to her in flashes._

 _There are flames._

 _Screams piercing the air._

 _Some are hers._

 _The smell of burning flesh and wood meets her nose._

 _Her heads spins and her stomach flips._

 _The air is taken up by smoke._

 _It's hard to see._

 _She squints through the fire to find him._

 _Her eyes widen at what she sees._

 _He's struggling to put out the fire licking at his skin, covering him head to toe._

 _She watches in fear as the flames only continue to grow._

 _Her hands push her off the floor._

 _She knows it's her fault._

 _She did this._

 _But she doesn't know how and now her mind's screaming at her._

 _Leave._

 _It says._

 _Run._

 _It urges._

 _But she's stuck staring at the man losing the struggle with the flames._

 **.**

 _It's the distant sound of firefighters and cops that's quickly becoming louder that snaps her out of the terror-induced gaze and she acts fast._

 _She runs to her room first and grabs the bag that she'd hidden in her closet. She'd never thought she'd do it but she'd been planning on running away for months and now she has no choice but to. Running out towards the back of the house, making her way through the flames that seem to have no effect on her, she reaches the back door just as the sound of shouting voices floats to her from the front yard._

 _Quickly opening the backdoor, she runs out into the night with nothing but the clothes on her back and the backpack she'd packed in advance with the barest of essentials and nothing lasting._

 _The forest that resides behind the house seems oddly convenient to her now as she runs to it for cover from being found._

 _As soon as she's far enough in that she won't be seen, she looks back as tears stream down her cheeks to watch the remnants of her outburst from the distance._

 _The house is now burnt to ashes from the sheer force of the fire. It'd grown violently once she'd exited. There's a crowd of people viewing the wreckage in horror and fascination. The group of fireman that had arrived on the scene are now searching through the remains for signs of previous life. The fire truck's siren silent but blinking bright red in the night. Police cars parked in the street._

 _She glances down at the hand from which the fire had formed and feels the fear beginning to well up inside her once again._

 _A squeak escapes first, and then hard sobs begin racking her body as she collapses onto the ground, the full realization of what she'd done hitting her._

I killed him.

 _She had caused those flames. They had come from her and had gone straight for him. She knew it._

I killed him.

 _It didn't matter that she hadn't meant to, that she'd been defending herself from him. None of it would change the fact she caused it in the eyes of others. No one would defend her. No one would take the side of the freak._

I killed him.

 _She's a murderer now. Forever marked by the stain of a man's life taken by her hand. Things will never be the same. It's all she can focus on as her breath puffs out harshly with every cry. She's killed a man and now she won't ever be free._

I killed him.

 _Flames burst into existence all around her as her emotions collide with each other. The surrounding forest becomes shrouded in the fire. Flames lick at her skin but still she doesn't burn. She doesn't notice any of it._

I killed him.

 _There's a distant knock breaking through the rush of white noise, but she's buried in that single thought and doesn't hear it._

I killed him.

 _"Isabella?" There's concern in the voice._

 _She doesn't hear it._

I killed him.

 _Another succession of knocks that grow louder with each._

 _She doesn't hear it._

I killed him.

 _"Isabella?!"_

 _She's hauled up from the ground by strong hands and the flames fall away to reveal a cleared bedroom._

 **.:.**

A gasp escapes her as she awakens from the dream.

The huffs of breath continue despite that as she shudders through the tears streaming down her face. She hasn't fully come to yet. She's still replaying the memory in her mind and those three words are still at the forefront of her thoughts.

 _I killed him._

"Shh, Isabella, it's going to be okay, shh."

The voice breaks through the haze and her mind starts to clear as she realizes she's encased in someone's arms. Her body tenses at the sensation until the voice fully registers and she figures out who is holding her.

 _Irina_.

The woman is saving her once more. She's bringing her out of yet another bout of emotion. She's running a hand up and down her back in a soothing motion. There's a cold seeping through her from the embrace that she doesn't quite take notice of but it keeps her grounded in some form of reality. She doesn't make any motion to move away from the hug she's wrapped in.

Instead, she grabs on tighter to the blonde and buries her head in her shoulder in an attempt to push away everything else.

 _I'm not there anymore._

She tries to calm down her racing heart as she pushes the nightmare to the back of her mind to focus on the here and now.

 _I'm not there anymore._

That new thought becomes her mantra as she struggles through the remaining tremors of emotion.

 _I'm not there anymore._

She reminds herself she's already gone through it all, she's no longer in that place, lost and with nowhere to go.

"Isabella?"

She opens her eyes, not having realized she'd kept them close after waking up until that moment, and comes face to face with Irina. The woman's golden eyes are oddly darkened, she notes, but she doesn't say anything of her confusion. The obvious concern reflected in those eyes are helping to alleviate the stress of the dream.

She's here now, with Irina, and Tanya and Kate. Safe in their kindness and desire to help her.

"Isabella?"

It's only then that she realizes Irina had been talking to her and that was why she heard her voice before. The sound of her full name flowing so beautifully from the blonde is such a relief to the clipped tone of 'Bella' she'd been hearing for years.

She tries to respond, to thank her for once again helping her, but her voice cracks when she goes to speak and she has to clear her throat with a cough.

"Shh, it's okay, you don't have to say anything for now." She's pulled tighter against the cold, a respite from the heat of flames. "Just come with me downstairs, little one, Tanya is preparing a midnight snack for you and you can drink some water."

She only nods her head in reply and allows Irina to pull her along with her to the kitchen, not wanting to let go of her.


	8. confessions

**Disclaimer** : I do not claim any ownership over the ideas of others incorporated into this fic. It all belongs to its rightful owners.

* * *

 **confessions**

* * *

She sits at the kitchen counter eating the sandwich that had been prepared for her in silence while trying to gather her thoughts.

When she and Irina had arrived at the kitchen, both of the other sisters were already there waiting with the snack and glass of water Irina had mentioned to her upstairs. She understood that they all must have heard the commotion her nightmare had caused, but the odd thing was that they were still dressed in clothing that were in no way appropriate sleep wear.

It had left Bella wondering what they had all been doing still up as it was way past midnight.

She made no mention of it though. Both of the sisters that hadn't come up to wake her had worn concerned expressions, golden eyes shining with worry, and it had deterred her from asking about what she'd noticed as the reason she herself was now up was brought back to mind.

She'd ducked her head to avoid their expressions then, not wanting to see their kind worry and concern for her in the face of what she'd done.

And she hadn't lifted her head up since.

She'd sat at the counter in front of the placed food and began eating with a muttered thanks to the sisters. Her eyes focused on the sandwich as she took bites of it, free hand wrapped around the glass of cold water in hopes of keeping the heat at bay.

Bringing her to the present moment.

Her thoughts are jumbled up as she tries to sort out dream from reality and suppress the memories that have surfaced in light of the nightmare.

She hasn't dreamt about that day for a while, and she knows that the latest incident has brought the memories back to the surface. And now she has to decide whether she'll tell them anything, and how much if she does.

She's worried about how the sisters might react should they ever find out about what she'd done from somewhere else. Unexplained murders via fire could be traced back to her by someone who knows of what she's capable of doing. And he is not the only one she'd attacked with the flames; he was just the first, the spark that ignited the fire and caused it to rise to the surface.

And she can feel it now, constantly, the heat of the fire that resides within her brewing just under her skin. Something that hadn't ever been on any level of awareness before has become something that evokes warmth throughout her but it's not as great as one might think.

It's far from a comfort when paired with memories of what those flames have done.

She knows the few others that have been doused in her fire could not have survived either, even if she hadn't stuck around long enough to really know if they'd had help or were consumed to ashes.

In the time between attacks, the constant drum of heat pulsing through her would begin to fade to the background, becoming just another part of her biology, something she didn't take conscious notice of, like her consistent breathing. But then she would run into someone and she'd feel so threatened that the flames would just react, as if it's become a defense mechanism for such deep fear.

It just acts on its own and she can't seem to do anything about it, and now it's happened too many times.

She can't keep burying it.

The disgust and hatred of what she'd done kept her from seeking anyone out for months, especially after the one time she'd tried to reconnect with her mother only to be shunned for what she'd done to protect herself.

(She hadn't believed her, she knew. Hadn't taken her word when she told her of his actions. And that had made the rejection far worse.)

But now she's been taken in by these kind souls that seem to share at least the impossibility of having such abilities with her, and she's trying (and failing) to not hope too much that she'd be understood. That once the truth of all she'd done comes to light, these sisters who have shown her great kindness will not turn her away but believe her when she says she hadn't meant to, that it was an uncontrollable self-defense.

They knew of what happened right before she'd been taken in by them, after all, and that hope that she can't seem to stop feeling has her thinking of telling them everything.

Of telling them how she'd discovered her abilities, and how she'd stopped trying to figure them out after she'd seen the seeds of fear in her mother's eyes that first time. Of how she'd grown up isolated, her mother not wanting her to show anyone, even inadvertently, what she could do. Of how she'd gained a stepdad but lost any hope of her mother ever looking at her without fear with his arrival.

Of how he had only heightened her mother's fear and had ultimately caused her to prove those fears right in the end.

Of how she killed him.

Mistakenly.

Horribly.

But she killed him, and three others have been added to that list as far as she knew. Three others ranging across the path she'd taken from Arizona to Alaska in naive hope that the cold would dim the heat and stop any other incidents from occurring.

That hope has not been realized but she'd gained something much better from her travel here, and she would really like to keep it.

So she wants to tell them about it all, lay it out on the table so that she won't have to worry about it coming back to bite her later if they find out she'd hidden it. She wants them to know the risks of having her stay with them, of how little control she has. Wants them to understand that she never wanted to truly hurt anyone.

She just wants them to accept her, fully.

 **.:.**

While Bella ate her food in silence, the sisters took to communicating at a low decibel to figure out how exactly to proceed.

They haven't been humans for nearly a millennia and barely remember anything of their time as humans, let alone how bad dreams had felt. And it's been centuries since they had any true interaction with humans - especially since the closest contact they'd last had was when they would lure human men and women alike to their deaths via succubus seduction - so they were unsure how to respond.

And given that they didn't know much about the girl yet, they weren't even sure what exactly could be troubling her.

But they could guess as to the reason and they have, all agreeing it could do with what happened the night Irina had found the girl. They had all heard the mutterings that she spoke in between the crying that seemed as though it'd been spoken to them clearly with how easily their hyper sensitive ears picked up the words.

 _I killed him_ , she'd said, repeatedly, and so it wasn't hard to come to the conclusion they had.

Discussing and coming to an agreement on how to approach the girl about it was a bit more difficult though. It wasn't like any of them had much experience in similar matters - they were vampires, killing was far from a foreign thing, they no longer felt guilt over it - so they couldn't do much but wing it.

"She seems to take to you the most, dear, you should try to get her to talk to you." Tanya tells Irina, concern lacing her tone as she looks over the girl, seeing how lost in thought she was.

She had only looked at them once when she'd walked into the room and the lack of eye contact was very worrying. Just hours beforehand, she'd had a nice conversation with her, had even gotten the girl to open up enough to hear about how much the book series she'd been reading meant to her. And now she barely got a thank you sent her way.

It looks as if she's closing herself off and from what she's learned over the years about human psychology, that is not a good thing.

"I want to but I don't want to pressure her to talk if she doesn't want to. She couldn't even get a word out without choking up when we were upstairs." Irina replies to her, sat beside Bella and trying not to give in to the need to lay a hand on the girl's back to soothe her in case it wasn't wanted.

"We need to do something, though, and that's our best bet. She trusted you enough to come here and stay with us, overriding any instinct she might have felt about our nature." Kate interjects, a serious line forming her lips as she too looked Bella over in concern.

It wasn't common to see her so calm and serious lately as she'd taken to enjoying the current times and embracing the trends of the youth. But she'd taken a real liking to the girl and was looking forward to helping her learn to control her abilities as the only one with an active defensive power in the coven. She didn't like seeing her so down.

Tanya and Irina both frown in agreement with their sister's statement but before any further discussion could be made, a small voice speaks up.

"I killed my stepdad."

 **.:.**

Her confession hangs in the air, her body coiled tight with tension as the time passes with no response.

She'd gone over the possible consequences of telling them multiple times but the need to tell them and the hope that they would still look at her the same overruled any other thought. The fact that they hadn't freaked or said anything about what Irina had to have seen her do was a major factor in it all.

But now she's having second thoughts.

As soon as the words had left her mouth, she'd wanted to take them back. It hadn't been what she'd meant to tell them. She had wanted to start off with how little control she had, the close to nothing bit of knowledge she had about her abilities not giving her much power in stopping it. But she'd blurted out those words instead, the words she'd echoed relentlessly in her dreams only moments before.

And they were now out in the air, just hanging in the silence that snapped back into existence after she'd spoken.

Not able to take the continued silence, she keeps talking, trying to get it all out before they can come out of the shock they seem to be in.

"I hadn't meant to. I-I'd just wanted to make him _stop_ , just wanted to stop it all, and it just... came out."

"Stop what, dear?"

Irina's soft voice goes a long way in reassuring her, and she just spills it all.

She tells them of what she was trying to stop him from, the hits he'd been throwing at her, the fear she'd felt at his actions. She tells them of how she ran off when she heard the cops and firefighters outside. Of how she'd hidden out for a few weeks before having the courage to seek her mother out when she'd heard about the funeral.

How her mother had gone from relieved and happy to see her alive - it having been assumed she died in the fire with him - to angry and disgusted as the realization of how she was still alive sunk in. How her mother told her to leave and never return, that her daughter had died in that fire and she wanted nothing to do with her.

She tells them of how she had tried to keep to herself on her travels but it hadn't worked out.

Tells them of the woman and men the flames had attacked in the time between the fire and now.

Of how scared she was each and every time.

Of how she tried to warn those people.

Of how she's trying to warn them now.

She tells them everything with her eyes still locked downward and hope warring with fear in her mind.

 **.:.**

The sisters don't interrupt as she tells them about all she'd been through, minds reeling with how much bigger the problem was than they first thought.

And when she finishes her story, they all look to one another with matching expressions of determination.

It seems their timetable has sped up.

They know now that there's no way they can hold off telling the girl everything. The girl has confessed things that would drive any adult human mad with guilt over their actions, and she was just a teenager that had been dismissed and abandoned at her time of need. She's had to deal with the worry and guilt evident in her eyes on her own.

But she wasn't alone in the knowledge of what she'd done anymore.

With a nod of three heads in agreement to an unspoken decision, Irina moves to stand right at the girl's side, bringing an arm up to wrap around her shoulders like she'd been wanting to and speaking to her in as soft a voice as she could manage.

"It's okay, Isabella, it's okay. You've done nothing wrong."

Bella turns into her embrace, and wraps her arms around her as her sisters come to stand with them, placing a hand on each of the girl's shoulders.

"Really?" Bella mutters into her shoulder and she can feel the tears that are falling on her soaking through her shirt.

Irina's worried about the reaction Bella will have to what they're about to tell her. Worried that it would cause the girl to want to leave after she finds out how much death they themselves have caused over the centuries, on purpose. But she knows that Bella needs to hear about their own experiences so that she can start to understand she wasn't bad for what had happened.

She smooths down soft, brown hair as she says, "Yes, little one, it's okay."

And then looking up into her sister's' eyes for some resolve, she continues, "But there are some things we need to tell you."


	9. revelations

**Disclaimer** : I do not claim any ownership over the ideas of others incorporated into this fic. It all belongs to its rightful owners.

* * *

 **revelations**

* * *

When she was a child, Bella had thought her ability to be proof of the supernatural being out there in the world.

She'd been too scared to ever try to experiment with what she could do after the last time her mother caught her but that hadn't stopped her from trying to find out as much as she could about anything even remotely related to the supernatural. And so she had immersed herself in tales of myths, legends and stories ranging from ancient beings to contemporary heroes.

Because that's what she was, that's what the ability she had was classified as.

Supernatural.

Paranormal.

Unnatural.

It was something other than the usual and that left a huge mark on her. But the thought of others like her out there had kept her from succumbing to feelings of self-hatred for the longest time. It had given her hope that she was not alone, and she had begun to believe that she was a part of something much greater than regular humankind could ever understand.

But those hopes and dreams had shattered as the years progressed and nothing ever proved any of it true until, eventually, she'd completely given up hoping that there was a grand reason for what she could do.

And then she'd met Irina.

Or rather, Irina had found her after another awful incident and had shown her that she wasn't alone after all. There actually were others out there who could do things that had only ever been thought of as possible in fictitious worlds. And knowing that at least three others were like her had once again sparked hope that she wasn't a freak, a one-off that had come into existence by mistake.

It was such a great relief to her, knowing that. Now she has people to talk to about her abilities and those same people are willing to teach her to control them. It was more than she could have ever hoped for as a child.

But apparently, that's not where things ended.

 **.:.**

At first, Bella hadn't thought much of Irina's words.

The blonde had led her into the living room instead of speaking any further and she had followed along willingly, unsure of what she was going to be told but happy that she hadn't gotten any of the negative reactions she'd been bracing for.

She'd been led to the couch in an almost mirror image of the first time she'd been brought into the room, hand on her back guiding her and then gently urging her to sit down. Irina took up the space right besides her, both of them sharing the middle cushion. Tanya and Kate had followed along behind them and had each taken a seat at the chairs besides either end of the couch.

No one said a word for a long moment as each tried to figure out how to proceed. But then Kate shifted in her seat and spoke up as tactlessly as only she could be, stating, "Are we doing this or what?"

And that seemed to break the tension that had grown in the brief moments before.

Irina turned in her seat to better face Bella with a roll of her eyes at her sister's words. She reached out both hands and gently took hold of one of Bella's in between them. Settling on how to start in her mind, she began, "We wish to tell you how exactly my sisters and I came to possess the abilities we have."

Eyebrows shot up in surprise at her statement, Bella having believed they had just discovered what they could do the way she had. Wanting to clarify, she asks, "Do you mean you guys didn't always have it? That you didn't just accidentally use it without knowing?"

From the left, Tanya speaks up and says, "No, we didn't. We were all past the age of twenty before we acquired our abilities."

With her brows furrowed, Bella asks, "Then how did you get them? Was it like a chemical spill? Or were you guys bitten by something?"

Chuckles briefly resounded around the room from the sisters as they all processed what she'd been implying and how it mirrored the truth in an odd way. It only further confused her because she'd been dead serious. How many ways can one gain supernatural abilities, really?

"Sorry, Isabella. It's just that you're way off base here," Kate says as her laugh subsides.

"Though to be fair, you are kind of right," Irina adds.

Her confusion far from being alleviated, she asks, "How can I be so off and yet be right?"

Tanya speaks up again, explaining, "Well, we did gain our abilities as a result of a bite that introduced a sort of chemical into our systems that then led to a transformation of our biology. That's how you're right. But it wasn't anything like the images you're alluding to that are portrayed in entertainment."

Now far more intrigued than confused, she asks, "What happened then? What bit you?"

The silence filled the air once more as the sisters began to communicate too low for Bella to hear. But though she didn't know what they were saying, she knew they were talking to each other from the way their mouths moved. She had thought at first that they just spoke too fast for her to catch the words, but she now figures something else is happening as well since she can't even hear anything coming from them.

And though she tried to wait out whatever they were discussing, she was starting to worry about what could cause them to hesitate so much after what she had revealed to them.

"Seriously, you guys are starting to worry me with your pauses and tenseness. I just told you guys some pretty shit things, I can definitely handle whatever it is you all aren't sure I could." They had accepted her like she'd hoped, after all. Listening to everything she had to say before just comforting her and moving on from the moment in a way that made her feel like what she'd just revealed wasn't a big deal.

It was the reaction she hadn't known she'd needed from them until they had given it to her. She hadn't wanted to prolong that particular conversation. She had only wanted them to know.

And so Bella won't be scared off easily from the people who have shown her what it's like to not be alone. She doesn't want to ever go back to the life of isolation and solitude she'd experienced the past months. And that's what she tries to convey to them as she awaits their reply.

Nothing could make her leave.

The sisters all look at each other once more, trying to figure out how to break the news because they know Bella has no idea what they want to reveal to her. She may very well change her mind, or become more apprehensive of her conviction.

But then Kate decides that they just need to rip off the band-aid.

"We're vampires, Isabella." Startled looks from both her sisters and Bella meet her announcement but she continues determinedly. "That's how we have our abilities, we were changed into vampires."

 **.:.**

In life, there are moments where the world seems to turn in a whole other direction and everything gets thrown on its head.

Moments where everything one thought they knew gets tossed out a window and is replaced with new concepts never imagined before. And the person whose world has been stretched and reshaped to fit this new form is left reeling in the aftermath. Their mind now having to adjust to new patterns of thought, while also trying to reconcile new information with past knowledge.

These moments will come up at the most unexpected of times and tend to require another few moments to fully sink in. They are life-changing moments. Earth-chattering moments.

Bella has experienced them twice beforehand, but this wasn't one of those moments for her.

And to the sisters, that was the most startling thing of all.

 **.:.**

Vampires.

There were actual vampires roaming the earth. She had been taken in by actual earth-roaming vampires. There were actual vampires staring at her with golden eyes, pale skin, and a seemingly inhuman beauty.

Vampires.

Here.

And all the reaction she could give was a breathy, whispered, _"Vampires?"_

That's all she said. At least, that's all she could manage to say aloud. Inside, however, her mind raced as old thoughts reemerged and her world righted itself.

She was right.

She had been right all along.

The supernatural did exist, and she wasn't the only proof of it.

Vampires.

There were actual supernatural vampires.

She had so many questions. So many things she had wondered as a child. How much of what was shown in books and movies was real? How was the transformation done? How long have they been alive?

How? And why? And when?

And wow. She was right.

"I was right."

"What?"

Bella looks up at the question and finally realizes that she hadn't exactly said anything to the sisters after their major reveal. But where can she start. She has so much to say, but she doesn't know what to say first.

Thoughts of all the possibilities circle her mind.

But her mouth decides for her.

"There was garlic in yesterday's dinner."

 **.:.**

That wasn't the reaction any of them had expected.

Far from it.

But Kate starts cracking up at the girl's statement as soon as she makes the connection in her head. Garlic. Vampires. Garlic hurts vampires. She laughs hard and loud.

And the other two are left baffled.

"What are you talking about Isabella?" Tanya questions confused, and Irina looks to the girl for her reply with the same expression painted on.

But Kate is the one to speak up in between snickers as Bella's cheeks have started to redden, "She-she's wondering how the garlic didn't do anything to us. You know, cause we're vampires."

And then she starts laughing again, hand clutching her stomach, eyes watering but no tears escaping. The other two finally clue in to what's so hilarious and release their own small laughs at the girl's thoughts.

Bella's face seems to reach peak temperature.

"Hey, that's a legitimate question!"

The shout of indignation breaks through the amusement but the atmosphere still retains some of the playfulness, a far cry to the tensed moments beforehand.

Kate shakes her head as she finally calms down and says, "Sorry, but that was just not what I thought you would say." She wipes away at tears that aren't there, chest still moving with residual chuckles.

Bella doesn't take well to being laughed at, and says, "Yeah, well, you haven't even answered. Does it?"

The real question is implied and Tanya interjects to prevent any further mischief from sidetracking the conversation they need to have with Bella. "No, little one, garlic does not have any effect on us."

"We just can't really digest any food," Irina adds.

Bella takes in their answers with a concentrated expression on her face, trying to work out whether to ask for clarification or ask about something else. But then a thought comes to mind as she looks at them and she decides on the latter to lessen her curiosity about it. Because the odds that three sisters were all turned must be very small.

"So are you guys really sisters?"

"Well, it's kind of complicated," Irina says.

Tanya further clarifies, "As vampires, we consider ourselves sisters because we all share the same creator."

"But, we didn't share any ties as humans," Kate finishes.

Bella nods her head to show she understands and another question comes to mind. "What about your cousins? Are they vampires too?"

"Oh yes, both Carmen and Eleazar are vampires but we don't share any biological ties with them as humans or vampires. They're a part of our coven, our family."

Tanya interjects before Irina can add anything else, asking, "Would you like to meet them? They can come over and help us answer any other questions you have. They have different experiences from us."

"Okay yeah, that'll be cool."

 **.**

Carmen and Eleazar arrive fifteen minutes after the call was placed.

The mated pair had been walking around in the city, enjoying a casual date on an overcast day, but hadn't minded being called to finally meet with the special human they all agreed to bring into their coven.

What was unexpected was the scene they arrived to.

Tanya was sat on one of the living room chairs, but the other was occupied by the human girl and was being raised up and down by Irina and Kate on either side of it. Both of them one-handed. And if that wasn't odd enough, the human was laughing as she told them to go faster and higher. Tanya had told them that things went much better than they could have hoped with the reveal of their nature, but they hadn't thought it went so well that the girl was playing around with them.

It was an odd sight to come home to.

"Are we at the right place?" Eleazar jokingly asks to announce their presence.

Tanya stands up from her seat as the chair with the girl is placed on the ground and walks towards them as she speaks, "My dear cousins, how was the trip into the city." She greets them with kisses on the cheek and small hugs before returning to her chair.

Kate and Irina follow in her wake, repeating her greeting with each, and then they all move to take up seats on the couch. Bella doesn't do much but stare.

Carmen is the first to note her silent presence, and she says, "Hello dear, you must be Isabella, yes?"

"Uh yeah, hey."

Irina takes up the rest of introductions as she points to one and then the other, "Little one, these are our cousins and coven mates, Carmen and Eleazar."

"Nice to meet you guys."

"Likewise dear." Eleazar says, moving an arm around his mate as he sends her a small smile of welcome.

Bella resumes her staring, her gaze moving from vampire to vampire, analyzing the differences and similarities between them. The sisters had told her the two were a couple, mates is what they called it, but they didn't share the same creators. And her curiosity is peaked once again as she notices something about all of them.

She decides to just ask them about it, in her own way.

"So then I'll also have those golden eyes when I'm a vampire?"

But her question is met with silence. She looks at them with furrowed brows the longer the silence continues, unsure of its presence. She had thought it to be a reasonable question since they all shared the same exact golden eyes, and that wasn't exactly a normal eye color. It must be a vampire thing.

Eleazar is the first to react of the group as he asks, "You actually want to be a vampire?"

The others all look at her in anticipation.

She only shrugs as she replies, "Well yeah. You're all vampires."


	10. discussions

**Disclaimer** : I do not claim any ownership over the ideas of others incorporated into this fic. It all belongs to its rightful owners.

* * *

 **discussions**

* * *

Vampires.

She's living with actual vampires.

It's been a whole week since she found out and it has yet to lose its wonder.

If anything, she's even more in awe of their existence.

With every question they answer, no matter how trivial or ridiculous it may be, she grows more and more intrigued. There's just so much that is unknown about them - the least of which that they actually exist - and so much of what the world claimed as mythology has proven to be inaccurate or untrue.

Like the fact that they can't turn into bats, or anything really (which was a letdown, if she said so herself).

Or the fact that the sun irritated them if they stayed out too long but didn't actually hurt them (much less of a letdown, she rather likes them alive).

Or the fact that human blood is not the only thing that could sustain them, surprisingly enough.

The first thing she had really questioned was their eye color, because gold seemed to be such an unusual one for a race of people who lived off blood, and she'd gotten more than she'd thought the simple question would yield. That the color wasn't a result of their vampirism but of their chosen food source was a shock.

Who would have ever thought vampires could live off of animal blood?

She sure hadn't even contemplated that possibility.

"The vampire equivalent of vegetarians," Kate had jokingly said.

Talk about the irony. There were humans who didn't want to eat animals, sure, but there were now some _vampires_ who didn't want to drink from _humans_. They were like holes in the grand circle of life, or kinks in the mighty food chain; a deviation from the natural way of things.

And she thought them amazing.

It felt as if she'd somehow found the weirdest group of vampires to introduce her to the world she belonged to, and she was so very glad for it.

Though their unusual diet isn't the most interesting thing she's discovered.

No, that spot is reserved for the only thing the world got completely right; their immortality.

They have all been alive for centuries. Between the five of them, there have been dozens of lifetimes lived and hundreds of times explored. The amount of stories they have tucked away must be endless.

And she wants to hear them all.

She wants to know about all they've seen. The wars and plagues that terrorized lands. The rises and falls of empires and kingdoms. The shifts in views and norms as societies evolved.

And their own experiences through it all.

The sisters themselves have been alive for little over a millennium now. When they were born, the human world had only just truly began to expand and they were able to watch it all grow into the world of today, the age of information.

That they have been together for most of their lives, have shared all their major experiences since becoming vampires, was another amazing thing to learn.

She wonders at what that must have been like. Having each other through all the ups and downs. The childhood she had pictured them having turned into a centuries-long bonding experience, and it was even more heartwarming to think of.

And then the fact that Carmen and Eleazar have been alive for nearly the same amount of time as each other just added to it all. The two of them had been turned in very different places over three centuries ago but had found each other after only a single century, and it had to have been fate that brought them together.

Because how can two people who were meant for one another find each other any other way in a world of billions.

They can't.

It's that simple.

And now she's began to believe that fate was also the cause of their arrival in her life.

Because how else could Irina have found her at just the right moment to see what she could do and decide to bring her into their world.

Her world.

It had to have been destined for her to meet them, for her to become a vampire and join them.

It's the reason she'd been hoping for, the explanation for her ability.

And she thanks whoever's up there for it.

* * *

 **.:.**

* * *

She's worried.

It's been a week since they revealed their nature to Isabella but the girl doesn't seem to be questioning her quick agreement to being turned.

And that's a serious cause for concern.

Not because she doesn't want her to be turned - no, Irina's completely okay with that - but rather, because she's not sure the girl fully comprehends all that becoming a vampire entails.

She can tell that the wonder of their existence has taken hold of her from the way she's become fixated on all they can do and all that they've done in centuries of living. She can hear the excitement in her voice when she asks her questions, can see the way her eyes light up with each new piece of information, and she's began dreading what will happen when she finds out the not-so-nice things.

Like the uncountable number of people they've killed over the years.

Or that most of them still feed off of humans despite their chosen diets.

Or that being a vampire means constantly thirsting after blood and spending the time in between feedings trying to fill up the endless days with some sort of excitement.

Because they have lived centuries, but for most of that time, they could not experience all they would have wanted.

Not with the constant threat of exposure in a world that grew too fast to adapt to.

And they hadn't changed their diets out of some perceived guilt for their actions. No, they all knew and accepted what they were. They had changed diets to try to get more out of their eternal lives, to better experience living as a family.

Human blood was not conducive to either.

It intensified their vampiric instincts to the point that forming bonds with other vampires became difficult. The most familial a connection could become with another vampire was being mated. There are no sisters, or cousins, or family within regular covens. Only leaders, and the members that followed them.

And even then, covens bigger than three were extremely rare.

The only human drinking coven that had a large amount of members was the Volturi, and that was only possible because the gifts of a select few in the guard allowed them to keep everyone loyal to the Kings.

So being a vampire was not all it was made out to be.

At least, not how Isabella seems to be making it out.

Irina hopes that her concern about how the girl will take to everything once it's all out in the open ends up being pointless.

But she still worries.

And she knows the only thing that will alleviate her concern is talking to her about it all.

So she heads off to do just that.

* * *

 **.:.**

* * *

It'd been a week of peace.

She hadn't been able to spend every waking hour questioning them about their lives, so she had spent the rest of her free time finishing the series from her childhood, completing the final book that morning.

It had ended up being a good balance to the constant discoveries about the Denali, and vampires in general.

But it'd been a week, and she knew the vacation she's had from her problems was bound to end.

* * *

 **.:.**

* * *

Bella's kneeling on the floor, browsing through the lowest shelf of books when a knock sounds.

Looking up towards the source, she finds Irina leaning against the doorway to the den, arms casually crossed.

She rushes to her feet clumsily, throwing out a 'Hey' as she dusts off the knees of her pants for lack of anything else to do.

Irina returns her greeting with a smile, and she asks her, "What's up?"

Pushing off the door, the blonde walks further into the room to stand beside her as she says, "I just wanted to talk to you, haven't really hung out with you all day."

"Oh," She raises a hand to rub at the back of her neck as she continues, "Yeah, I wanted to finish the series so I haven't been back down until now."

"Ah, so how was the book? Satisfied?"

Irina moves to sit in one of the chairs, and Bella follows her, taking up the other seat. They face each other as they get comfortable.

"Yeah. I mean, I remembered most of the plot, but it was nice reading it again with a new perspective. Felt like I missed some things the first time around."

"I know what you mean. Like the years you've gained since the first read through have given you a different view of things."

"Yeah, exactly."

They exchange smiles.

Silence falls.

Tension builds.

Bella coughs awkwardly to break the stillness before asking, "So, what have you been up to?"

"Nothing much," Irina begins, pausing for a moment and then finishing, "But I actually wanted to talk to you about something in particular."

Bella straightens up at her words, eyebrows drawing up in concern. "Oh, what is it?"

"It's about you becoming a vampire."

Irina can hear the increase in the girl's heart rate, see the fear begin to seep into brown eyes, and she's quick to reassure her.

"Oh no, Isabella, don't worry. It's not that, I would love it if you became one of us," She waits until those eyes, eyes that had fallen in their worry, look back up at her before continuing, "I just want to make sure you know what you're getting into."

Bella's brows furrow in confusion at her words, unsure of what she means.

She knew exactly what she was getting; a place to belong, a home.

Something she had longed for, for months.

She tells the blonde as much.

Irina's eyes soften at the words, and she moves closer to the girl, laying a hand on her arm.

"Of course," she tells her, "you're already a part of this family. I just want to talk about the details."

"The details?"

Glad that she's become more receptive to her, Irina removes her hand and explains, "I want to make sure you understand how serious of a choice you're making. Being a vampire is not as glamorous as you might've been led to believe by mainstream media."

Bella nods her head quickly in reply, saying, "I know that, I do. My choice to become a vampire isn't based on any of the crap that's been written about vampires by humans. I want to become a vampire because it's what I'm meant to be."

It's as simple as that to her.

She knows this is her future.

Irina's eyebrows are the one to furrow in confusion now as she asks, "What do you mean?"

Out of all the things she'd worried about, she never once thought Isabella had more of a reason for her decision than impulse because her decision had been so quick to come.

It seems she might've been very wrong about that assumption though.

Bella explains it to her.

She tells her of the hours she would spend reading up on the supernatural, trying to find something substantial about where her ability had come from.

She tells her of her hopes, that she had been given this ability for a reason, that somewhere out there in the world, there were others like her, a place where she belonged.

And then she tells her how she'd given up those fantasies in her pre-teens, not having ever gotten any evidence that she was right.

How she'd resigned herself to a lonely fate.

Until she met her, Irina, and her sisters, and cousins, and they told her of their nature, and she had been given hope once again.

She was meant to be here, with them. Meant to become a vampire and an official member of their family. She knew it, and she told Irina so.

And Irina understood.

She knew what it was like, to feel like you were an outsider in not just your community but everywhere. And so she decides right then to share that part of her past.

She tells Bella of how she herself had been able to use part of her ability as a human.

But where the girl's ability lies in offense, attacking when she felt threatened, hers was more of a defense, shielding her from the attacks of others.

The times she was born into left a young girl vulnerable to many attacks, far more than the times of today as it wasn't seen as illegal back then, and she'd suffered a few before her ability had activated when something far worse was threatened.

It had made it so that no one could get within a feet of her without bouncing off some sort of invincible wall.

She had had to run away when it happened, too many people bearing witness to it leaving her at risk of death. And she hadn't been able to stop until she'd met her sisters and their maker.

Bella held her hand through it all, squeezing as hard as she could with every word uttered.

And when Irina finished her tale, Bella stood and pulled her up with her to give her a hug in comfort, thanking her for telling her in a whisper, afraid to break the mood that had taken hold.

When they pulled away, Irina saw the stray tear that had fallen and wiped it away from Bella's face. As she dropped her hand to take hold of Bella's, she told her, "It was a long time ago, but I wanted you to know that I truly do understand."

Bella nods in reply, a small smile of gratitude taking form, and Irina mirrors the smile with one of her own, gathering herself to continue the conversation in a different vain.

"Now that we've gotten _that_ settled," Bella chuckles at Irina's tone and choice of words, and she continues, "Why don't we start figuring out that ability of yours, huh?"

That doesn't garner the excitement she'd been hoping for, and Irina reaches up her hand to tilt Bella's head back up to her.

"Hey, it's going to be fine, okay?"

Bella's not so sure of that, is rather afraid that things will end up going monumentally wrong, but when she looks into sincere eyes, she can only nod her head in acceptance and hope that she's right.

* * *

 **.:.**

* * *

Irina wants to have the whole coven included in this part of their conversation, so she leads Bella to the living room.

The others are all already gathered there by the time they arrive, and they take up the free seats on the couch left for them.

Kate is the only other one sharing the couch with them, and Bella is sat in between the two sisters, so when the girl jumps up in sudden surprise at a shock to her side, the culprit is obvious.

"Kate!"

The accused blonde only snickers in response, and the others try to cover their amusement at the ongoing mischief.

Bella had been curious about what they could all do from the moment of their reveal, so Kate had taken the opportunity to show her first hand, and ever since, the blonde had shocked her whenever they came within reach of each other, much to Bella's escalating annoyance.

"It got old after the fifth time, _five days_ ago," Bella insists, but they all know her contrived anger is part of their back and forth. The two had really hit it off from the start, Kate answering most of the questions Bella asked without hesitation, and it's become more of a sisterly bicker.

It's enjoyable for them both.

"Okay, kids, settle down," Tanya jokingly calls to them, and with identical rolls of the eyes, they do.

Shaking her head in amusement at their interaction, Carmen says, "Isabella, dear, are you hungry?"

In response, Bella's stomach grumbles, and her cheeks turn pink as she sheepishly nods her yes. Carmen only sends her an indulgent smile and pats her arm as she passes by her to the kitchen to prepare a quick meal for the girl.

Bella can't hide her excitement if she tried.

The food Tanya had been making her before the arrival of their cousins had been good, yes, but Carmen is a goddess in the kitchen, and the Spanish dishes she cooks up are mouth-watering.

It doesn't take long for it to be made, vampire speed a huge help in the kitchen, and before long, Bella is digging into her food with mumbled 'thanks' and 'so good' in between bites.

The display is rather interesting to watch.

When she finishes the meal, she only gets to move into position to stand up before the plate and fork is quickly taken from her and washed before Irina is settled back on the couch.

Bella's mouth is left hanging open, and Kate makes a show of reaching over to close it before Bella snaps out of it.

"You guys have got to stop doing that without notice," Bella says with a shake of the head.

"Nah, it's too fun to stop," Kate answers for them all, and they all nod in agreement to the statement rather seriously.

"It just can't be helped," Tanya adds on.

"I thought we were going to discuss my ability," Bella huffs in reply to their teasing, arms crossing defensively.

With a chuckle at her act, Irina agrees to move on with their conversation, "I think we should start by trying to figure out what exactly constitutes your ability."

"Ah yes, this is where I come in then, ladies?" Eleazar says, smile lazily curving up his lips. He'd been content to just watch them all interact, as he'd been all week. Taking the time instead to watch their newest addition and get to know her that way.

He's found that she was exactly what they needed to get out of the stalemate their lives had fallen into.

"Isabella, do you remember what my ability is?"

She nods her head as the topic of her own ability is once more focused on, and the nerves that had lessened return with abandon. She hadn't wanted him to use his ability on her when she'd found out, and she still doesn't want to now.

The others all notice the change in her demeanor.

"Hey, you don't have to do this right now if you truly don't want to," Irina starts, laying a calming hand at the back of her shoulder, "But it'd be best to learn all you can as soon as possible."

"I know," She murmurs.

And she really does. So when Eleazar offers his hand, she extends her own to him despite the trepidation she feels, the uncertainty of what he might find scaring her off wanting to know the answer.

He only holds on to her, palm to palm, for a long four seconds but it's enough for her to imagine all that might be wrong.

And when his eyes open up with clear shock in them, she fears she's right.

"What did you find, dear?" Carmen asks, hand placed on his thigh as concern shines through.

"She's not just controlling fire, she's creating it."

His answer isn't what any of them had thought.

"What do you mean, creating it?" Tanya demands.

"Her ability, it courses through her like the blood in her veins. It's a part of her. That's probably why she can already use it. She doesn't need the venom to fully activate it, it's already there," Turning to look directly at Bella, he finishes, "And when you do become a vampire, I imagine it'll only grow more powerful."

Silence descends in the wake of his words for a long moment.

And then Kate speaks up, "Welp, I guess we need to begin your training first thing tomorrow."


	11. interlude

**Disclaimer** : I do not claim any ownership over the ideas of others incorporated into this fic. It all belongs to its rightful owners.

* * *

 **interlude**

* * *

It turns out Kate was serious about training her first thing.

Bella only just manages to finish her breakfast before she's tugged from her seat and maneuvered into a light, warm coat by an eager Kate. The blonde then immediately taking hold of her hand and dragging her out the back to a large open clearing a mile or two from the house. All done despite Bella's confusion.

Said confusion, however, is quickly cleared up when she sees a small, circular table set up in the middle of the space and Irina stood in front of it. She figures some planning had gone on while she'd been sleeping from the items laid out on the surface of the table.

Three candles and a box of matches.

Looking back in the direction they'd come from, Bella notes they're close enough that she can still see the house but far enough away that any possible incidents would be easy to contain. And she's thankful for the foresight put into picking the area.

She turns back to express that only to be pulled into a rather unexpected hug from Kate, who then steps back enough to still be able to hold onto Bella's shoulders.

"You got this, okay. Make me proud."

And with a final beam and quick squeeze of her shoulders, Kate takes off towards the house, leaving Bella rather confused as to what just happened, again.

Irina's chuckle draws Bella's attention to her as the blonde steps around the table and walks towards her. She's dressed in a similar attire to what she'd been forced into, even though Bella knows that the cold weather would have no effect on her.

"She's rather excited for you to learn control of your ability," Irina explains as she comes to a stop inches from her before continuing, "As am I."

"Ah," Bella smiles at her statement but then frowns as she thinks back, "Why'd she leave then?"

She would have thought Kate would be the one to lead her training given the similarities between their abilities. Both of them have control over an element of sorts. Eleazar couldn't work out the exact mechanics of her own ability yesterday, but he was able to confirm that it basically amounted to pyrokinesis. And Kate's ability is basically electrokinesis, the same thing as hers just with electricity instead of fire.

"Because," Irina makes a motion to follow her as she moves back to the table, "You have to learn to control your ability through practice and I'm the only one close to being fireproof."

When they both reach the table, Irina takes out a match from the box and lights it before moving it towards the palm of her other hand. In panic, Bella quickly grabs hold of the arm holding the match before it can make contact, shaking her head.

"What are you doing?"

"Don't worry, it won't touch me. Look."

Irina closes the distance between palm and flame.

Bella flinches.

But nothing happens.

Amazed, Bella looks at where the contact is being made and Irina indulges her by angling her hand so she can see better. It's barely noticeable, but Bella is able to see the slight, very slight, gap between the flame of the match and the blonde's palm. It's like there's a piece of some type of fire-resistant material that's blocking the flame from making true contact.

"Wow. How are you doing that?"

"It's part of my ability."

And Bella remembers then everything Irina had told her about her ability, the physical shield that had saved her life multiple times while she was still a human. Irina told her it would prevent anything from harming her, but she hadn't thought something so unpredictable and dangerous like fire could be blocked.

"That's awesome."

Irina sends her a small quirk of her lips in reply, then blows out the flame that had been slowly burning away at the matchstick.

It's only when the blonde grabs another match to light that Bella remembers why they're out there in the first place. She watches as Irina picks one of the candles, one hand moving to cover it as the other proceeds to light it with the flame of the match. The glow of the flame draws her in as it flicks softly in its hold, staying within the bounds set for it.

Bella had always found it amazing how something as wild as fire could be contained in something so simple, whether in a candle or in a fireplace, or on a stove.

But what frightens her is that it's not a fool proof thing. That flame could still cause drastic damage if released from its hold. She knows it, has seen it. One of her earliest incidents were as a result of a small flame turning into a blazing fire. All because of her.

She's a catalyst, and she has no control of it.

The hand that falls softly at her back startles her and breaks her gaze with the flame, memories dissipating as her focus is shifted.

"Are you okay to begin your first lesson?"

Bella looks from warm golden eyes to the warm glow of the flame and draws up all the courage she has inside of her.

The only thing there is to fear is fear itself, she tells herself, then looks back to sincere, golden eyes and nods.


	12. fathers

**Disclaimer** : I do not claim any ownership over the ideas of others incorporated into this fic. It all belongs to its rightful owners.

* * *

 **fathers**

* * *

 _It starts with a single flame on a small but thick cylinder candle._

 _She can feel the warmth emanating from it as she moves closer, the heat in her blood rising to the surface in response. She doesn't remember it feeling so alive as a child. The flame. It's as though it has a life of its own, fragile yet resilient as it ripples in the air, burning away at the wick, candle wax dripping at the sides._

 _She takes in a breath, inhaling the scent of lavender that fills the air around her, and welcomes the calm that falls over her in response._

* * *

 **.:.**

* * *

She's eleven years old and just beginning the sixth grade.

Her mother has been acting weird, more than she usually does. Staying up at all hours of the night talking on the phone. Laughing. She'll pass by her mother's room on the way to the bathroom at one in the morning only to hear giggles coming from inside. The first time it happened, she hesitated at the noise but then rushed to the bathroom when it was replaced by talking.

It had been a foreign sound to her, one she couldn't remember ever hearing before, but she's been hearing more of it lately.

And though she never musters up the courage to ask her mother what's happening, not wanting to receive a negative reaction to her questioning, she can take a guess from the evidence presented. The late night phone calls. A regression to almost teenage-like behavior. Her mother heading out twice a week on some unknown 'errand' that keeps her out well past a reasonable time.

She may be just a kid, but she's not an idiot. She's watched more than enough television programs to realize what's going on. And she doesn't know how she feels about it.

Her father had died when she was only four years old. The three of them had been living in a small town by the name of Forks in Washington State at the time, and he'd been mauled by some kind of animal during a patrol of the woods. She doesn't know if they ever found out what killed him because her mother had packed up the house and moved the two of them out to Phoenix, Alaska as soon as she could.

But even though she'd never known him, she used to seek out the brightest stars in the sky and wish upon them that he hadn't passed so she could've.

She'd wonder what her life would be like if he'd never died and she'd grown up with a father. She'd wonder if he would have been more accepting of what she could do, and if he would have shown her the affection her mother didn't seem capable of. She'd wonder at a lot of things about him, but she had never contemplated what her mother might have thought of his sudden death.

The house they'd had in Forks had been sold right away, her mother using the money to buy them the house they had now. She had never talked to her about her father, never told her tales of what he was like or how'd they met.

She only knows the little she does because she looked it up when she needed information about her father's side of the family for a class project; the classic family tree. And then she'd confronted her mother about it and had been told straight up that he'd died and there was nothing else to know.

She had been nine.

She never really asked her about anything since.

So she never knew her father and never learned much about him. She used to wish he was alive for a chance at a happier life with a nicer parent but has now accepted that it wouldn't come to pass. And so thoughts of having a father have been settled for a while now. As a result, finding out her mother was seeing someone new, someone who's not her father but could possibly be if all went well, gives her rather mixed feelings.

On the one hand, she's still a kid and the dreams she used to have with a father she didn't know were still very much present in her mind.

It could change a lot to have a father, a stepdad, join her family. Her mother is already acting much happier than usual and permanently having the person causing that happiness around would be great. She could do all the things the other kids at school talk about. She could have a dad to take her to the father-daughter dance this year and not end up missing out again.

So much could be better for her.

But it could also be worse.

After all, she doesn't know anything about this guy, and if her mother has managed to teach her any lesson of life, to fear the unknown would be it.

* * *

 **.:.**

* * *

 _She doesn't notice the emotions slowly bubbling in her at first._

 _She's focused on the smell of lavender enveloping her, on the warmth of Irina's reassuring smile filling her, the sense of calm she's been feeling more and more these past few days overriding any previous anxieties._

 _The lit candle is moved to the middle of the table and all of the other items are pushed to the side in precaution. Irina stands opposite her in front of the table and she locks eyes with her golden hues amidst the light smoke, the glow of the flame reflecting off them in flickering specks._

 _"Lesson number one is simple, Isabella," Irina's hands are placed at the edge of the table, her fingers pointing towards the candle as she says, simply, "Just make the flame grow."_

* * *

 **.:.**

* * *

She's turning twelve today and meeting him for the first time.

Her mother finally sat her down last week and told her about the 'lovely guy' she's been dating for the past few months. His name is Phil Dwyer. Apparently, he was a reasonably famous baseball player until a really bad shoulder injury took him out of the big leagues. He coaches a junior baseball team in town now, and the two met when her mother went to enroll her in the middle school early over the summer.

He's treating them to dinner at a local restaurant before they head to the carnival that's in town for the week. She's excited to go but nervous to meet him. From what her mother has said, he's known about her from the start and has been looking forward to meeting her.

She wonders why he never visited the house before now if that's true.

The clothes she had picked out to wear tonight are much fancier than she usually would bother to dress in. But she knows her mother really wants things to go well tonight, wants her to make a good impression on him, and despite all the problems between them, she does love her mother and wants her to be happy, so she puts on the clothes and widens her smile and sets out to make her proud.

He arrives just as she's tying up her boots and she races down as she hears her mother open up the door.

When her eyes fall on them, she can't help the sound of disgust she makes. They spring apart from their rather intimate embrace and her mother turns to her with a strained smile.

"Isabella, darling," Her mother never calls her that but she's wise enough not to point it out, "Come and meet Phil."

With a nod and an okay, she walks towards them with hesitant steps, focusing on keeping a smile pasted on her face. He doesn't look like she'd imagined he would. Like a baseball player in great shape. Rather, he has a slight belly, only made obvious by the tightness of his shirt, and half of his face is covered in a light dusting of hair. There's no evidence that he's ever worked out, and she wonders when exactly he had been forced to quit the league.

But even though she doesn't see what her mother finds attractive about him, television has taught her that people have wildly different opinions on what makes someone desirable to another, so she just shrugs it off.

She has seen a photo of her dad after all, seen the mustache he'd worn and the belly he had, so she shouldn't have really expected much else from her mother's boyfriend.

"Uh hey, kid. You excited to play at the carnival tonight?"

She doesn't know how she feels about him yet. His tone is more targeted towards kids three years younger than her, exaggerated in a way that tells her he's trying hard to speak at "her level," and it's not the best of impressions.

She gives him the benefit of doubt though, assuming his nerves got the best of him and he's not trying to come off as condescending as he is.

"Yeah, really excited," She pitches her voice to reflect her words, and gives the brightest smile she can manage. When she looks towards her mother, she finds that her smile has become much more genuine and her heart fills with lightness at it being directed to her.

In that moment, she has hope that this really will turn out for the best.

* * *

 **.:.**

* * *

 _She hasn't tried to consciously use her ability since she was a child._

 _But she knows how it feels when it's on the verge of bursting free from her, and she panics. For a moment. Until Irina is at her side in less than a second, hand on the small of her back, rubbing soothing circles. Her voice is softly murmuring in her ear, calming her with the simplest of phrases, reassuring her, pulling her out of a panic before it can ever truly begin._

 _She nods her head in reply when asked if she's okay to continue, and Irina leaves her side and returns to her previous position opposite her. Taking in a deep breath, she focuses in on the feeling coursing inside her, and makes the decision to face her fear head on._

* * *

 **.:.**

* * *

Dinner passes by in a blur of stories, foods, drinks and laughter.

She's high off the feeling of happiness. Her mother treats her more like a daughter in the span of two hours than she has in the past two years. She constantly touches her arm and pets her hair and sends her affectionate looks and smiles.

Phil is sat opposite her mother at the table, with her sat at the middle of it, just between them. She feels like they're a family with the easy way it comes to them, and the waitress at the restaurant seems to think so too from the comments she's made.

Her mother tells them stories of when she was younger, back before any hint of what she could do was ever brought up, and she tells them with such clear fondness. Phil laughs and mocks her for the embarrassing ones, the ones of a naked two year running from her mother as the guests they had over watched on. And she complains like daughters do for her to stop.

But she doesn't want her to, not at all. These are stories she never heard before, things she has no memories of, and she's happy to have the chance to listen to what life was like before.

Before, when she had a family and they were happy.

She's more than satisfied by the time they leave the restaurant, her stomach full and her heart overflowing. She walks alongside her mother, whose hand is encased in Phil's, to the car parked a bit further down the street. The carnival is not due to close for another five hours, when the clock strikes midnight, and she's looking forward to doing as much as possible.

After all, it's not a common occurrence for her to get to enjoy a day out like this.

* * *

 **.:.**

* * *

 _She draws in a breath, closing her eyes._

 _There's something distinct stirring inside her as she tries to draw upon her ability. It's powerful in its effect on her and she finds herself surrendering over to the feeling._

 _She opens her eyes and looks at the flame that still flickers innocently within the candle's hold. Her mind pictures it getting bigger, fanning out to encompass the whole surface of the candle, yet not overpowering it or deforming it._

 _She pictures it._

 _And then it grows._

* * *

 **.:.**

* * *

It's been over two months since she first met Phil.

She'll be out of school for the winter break in a week, and she's very much looking forward to it. There will be only two more quarters left until she's done with the seventh grade afterwards, and that means she'll be just that much closer to finishing school.

Phil isn't technically a part of the staff at her middle school, but he's there quite a lot as many of the kids he coaches attend the school. He's been over a lot to her house as well, has even had a few 'sleepovers' with her mother, and she's getting used to his presence in her life. There's also been an increase in days out on the town as he continues to woo them.

They've now been to the zoo, the movies a few times, and have even gone ice skating. She's not had this much forever in a long time, and she just knows it'll be better when she's not at school seven hours a day, five days a week.

He's actually coming over tonight, something that came out of nowhere, and her mother has been going crazy cooking some special lasagna recipe she's apparently been wanting to try.

Another thing that's new with the presence of Phil. Her mother has been more of a microwave dinners and frozen oven foods mom before he came into the picture. Not that she's complaining, anymore that is.

The sound of knocking echoes in the house just as she finishes tying up her hair, and she slips on some sandals before hurrying down. The food is already laid out on the dining room table by the time she gets there, a rarely used dining cloth laid out below the dishes, and Phil has brought some flowers if the ones sitting in a too short vase at the center of the table is anything to go by.

It's not really the usual lay out for home dinners, but she guesses her mother's flight of fancy has caught on some new home decorating thing and she's trying it out.

Or so she thinks.

Until she catches sight of a glint of metal coming from her mother's left hand, clutched in Phil's right hand, the two of them staring right at her with huge smiles on their faces, and she finally clues in on what's happening.

Seems she'll be getting a dad after all.

* * *

 **.:.**

* * *

 _It grows._

 _And grows._

 _And grows_

 _Until the size of it becomes too much for her to handle. It looms over the candle, and its strength overwhelms her, extorting the control from her and bursting into a blaze, unrestrained and uncontrolled._

* * *

 **.:.**

* * *

The wedding is held on the 18th of December, exactly six months from the day they met.

She's made the flower girl and is forced into a dress she'd never voluntarily wear but her mother is glowing with happiness so she does so without complaint. It's only the closest of family and friends that attend and it takes place in their backyard, yet no expenses have been spared in making it a dreamy ceremony.

The day after the wedding, Phil officially moves in and the three of them become the family she's been wanting.

He's a pretty good dad to her, brings out the mom in her mother, and it all goes well.

Unfortunately, dreams come true aren't permanent and it doesn't last long.


End file.
